Maximum Red vs Blue Ride
by Fourth in Command Cixalea Jwan
Summary: Freelancers with wings. Fighting for freedom from the Director and Project Freelancer. I'm not going to include any of the Maximum Ride characters, only the concept of the bird kids and such so if you know RvB, you should be able to follow this. Eventual pairings: Yorkalina, CT/Wash, Wyoming/479er. (Yeah, you read that right.)
1. Carolina Captured

**I do not own Red vs Blue. Red vs Blue is property of Rooster Teeth.**  
**I do not own Maximum Ride. Maximum Ride is property of James Patterson.**

I hadn't seen anyone for days. I finally got over the mountains a few days ago as far as I could tell. I had made the critical choice of moving on instead of hiding out there. I knew that as long as I was in the air, they couldn't get me.

Stopping meant I made tracks.

Stopping meant I could be seen.

Stopping meant death.

Besides, I was _built_ for the air -literally. I made another push downward with my pair of aquamarine wings. They were fourteen feet across. Yet, they were almost at their limit. I had been flying for almost a day solid. The sun peaked across the horizon -horribly timed. I couldn't rest now! Especially during the day when every normal person was awake. I just had to push on.

The breeze was still cool, but slightly warmer here. Another reason to move away from the mountains. There I couldn't fly as high, and the air was like inhaling icicles. Here, I could stay well out of sight from the regular human population.

My wings were burning now. I couldn't keep this up. Not for much longer. I could have told myself that I was making excellent progress that I'd done good enough for today, and I deserved a break. But I didn't. That's what happens when you are the product of the most disgusting and horrible experiment known to man. I escaped a week ago and that meant I had a week of freedom. My wings burning, my back aching, the sun glaring right into my eyes was _nothing_ compared to what they would do to me if I was captured again. If they would take me back to the laboratory called the Mother of Invention where I was tortured under the organization, Project Freelancer.

My legs started to hang limp and my altitude began to fall. I hadn't eaten in three days. Even my superhuman body was beginning to fail me. My eyes started to droop until I saw a speck of blue in the distance. At first, I thought it was just another lake, but as I kept looking I realized it must have been the biggest lake in the world. I couldn't see the end of it. My heart started to beat faster as I tried to figure out if I was just imagining it. But the mirage stayed consistent. My heart leapt with joy!

"I made it!" I giggled like a child.

I made it to the ocean! The ocean! That meant I had made it to the borders of this country! The boundaries of the Project's cruel grasp! I just had to get on a boat, and I was free! I slowly made the descent. Picking a landing spot that looked field-ish, I ungracefully crashed to the dirt. My wings were steaming in the cold morning. I folded them to my back where they finally rested. I wrapped my torn up jacked around me. It was the only thing I brought with me. It hid my wings. I pulled myself to standing, and finally made my legs do some of the burden of travel. I made it to the coast.

I had never seen the ocean before. The ground was almost powdery and coarse nearest the water. A nice golden tan. I walked into the ocean. Watched my toes disappear into the ground as the cold water washed over them. I scooped up some of the water, but almost puked as it tasted horrid. What happened to it? Why was it so salty? Why didn't it taste the same as the water I had drank everywhere else? I moved on. I followed the water's edge looking for some sort of boat to hitch a ride on. I didn't care where it was going. All I needed was a way out of this place, this country. Not to mention I had to eat too. The weird water left a horrible taste in my mouth, and my stomach threatened to eat itself from the lack of nutrients offered to it.

As I continued and the sun started to rise, more people started appearing. They stood by the water and molded the golden ground into piles or splashed around practically naked in the water. I didn't like this. There were too many people. Too many pretty people too. I freaked out as I envisioned how every one of them could possibly be one of the Project's minions, Erasers. They looked like gorgeous humans one minute then they turned into wolf-people the next and tried to rip your face off. I escaped and wasn't going to take any chances. I was paranoid, and I wasn't going to let them take me by surprise. Everyone was a suspect. Everyone could be a potential threat. Even this far from the Mother of Invention. I hurried my pace along. Most of them ignored me. I kinda felt out of place with my ripped clothes and my extremely pale skin. Even my red hair seemed too dry and ratted for me to be just here for the water.

Eventually, I saw a dock with some boats tied off to it. This would be my least favorite part because it meant I had to talk to people, I had to get close to people, I had to get out in the open, I had to be seen -which meant people could remember me and people could report me. I wasn't a very trusting person. But for good reason.

I didn't have any money. But, that wasn't exactly going to cause a problem. I could try feminine charm although that wasn't exactly going to work when I smelled like I hadn't showered in years, which I hadn't, and that I didn't exactly have much practice. All I really needed was to know if they were leaving the country and when. I could stow aboard easily. I could even follow them for a while then drop down onto their ship from the air. They really couldn't stop me. I just needed the information.

There were few boats that looked like they could actually make it across the ocean. They were practically all small boats that looked like they were for fishing, not for travel.

"Ugh!"

I kicked a soda can into the water off the edge of the dock as I finished my observation of the wimpy, tiny boats. I hated being on the ground for any longer than necessary. This was a risky stop that could have meant big trouble. Thankfully, it didn't seem many attractive potential-Erasers liked to captain boats. I groaned as I realized I couldn't just fly off to the port. It was the middle of the day! The sun was up to its full height, and the world was wide awake here! I was completely and utterly exposed. Crap.

That's when my luck did a complete 180. In the distance, I saw an enormous boat. It looked six times the size of these pathetic rust buckets that sat at this dock. I could see with my improved vision that there were many coloured crates on top of the huge ship. The side of the boat had foreign writing on it. That boat must travel somewhere outside the US.

"Where is that ship going?" I asked to a nearby shiphand who had been watching me as he smoked on the deck of his miserable boat.

"Pro'bly Charleston. It's the biggest port in the Carolinas," he reported as he tossed his stubby cigarette into the water.

I started briskly for the beach again. If there was one ship like that there, there had to be others. The anticipation was killing me. I wanted to burst into the sky right then, but I might as well have flown back to the Mother of Invention myself if I did that. So I walked. Trying to act as normal as possible. I had the goal in my sights. I had a mission. I was focused beyond belief.

I got back to the beach. It was my only option. It's not like I could have simply got in my car and drove there. Roads went everywhere. The beach was my best option. Ships had to be in water therefore the port did as well. If I just followed the beach I would have to run into it eventually.

The beach dwellers still scared me. The ground burnt my feet if I stood on the sand behind all of them so I had to walk near the water parading in front of them. My feet hurt from stepping on so many weirdly shaped rocks.

My attention was so divided between scanning the crowd for Erasers and watching where I stepped, it wasn't until about an hour into my trek I noticed the people following me. They were muscled, but not tanned. They were freaking hot, but not sandy. They were perfect, but not in swim shorts. And they were heading_ right for me_.

At first, I tried to play cool. They were still a little bit behind me. Maybe they weren't here for me. Maybe they just thought I was pretty. Yeah. And maybe this was all a bad dream, and I would wake up with a family in nice house with a picket fence. I took another glance behind me. They were getting closer. My muscles coiled as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

"Screw it!"

I threw off my coat as I broke into a sprint. As soon as I gained enough speed, I snapped my wings out and thrust them down hard. Sand flew up into the air and choked some people in mid gasp of seeing a mutant bird kid right in front of them. I got a few other wing beats in before I felt my legs constricting and a stomach lurching weight start to pull me down.

"NO! Get off me you, _! NO! NOO!" I screamed, as I panicked and tried to shake the Eraser free.

I was no match for a 250 pound wolf-person. I almost ripped my wings off trying to stay aloft, but it was no use. I crashed to the ground, and turned on the attack. I flipped myself over, spitting the sand out of my mouth, and beat the Eraser still holding my legs as hard as I could. I was ripping his wolfy hair off his arms and throwing sand in his eyes and punching mercilessly at his huge muzzle. My fingernails were covered in blood, but he opened his mouth and bit my leg. I fell back at the sheer pain that lanced through me. I screamed bloody murder.

The beach patrons had all fled by now. It was just me and the Erasers. I tried to pry his jaw off, but it wouldn't budge. Tears streamed down my face as expletives poured out my mouth. If anything, I would let the Eraser know exactly what I thought of him and of the Project and of their experiments and of his mother! Yeah, the Erasers were products of the Project's experiments too, but they weren't tortured like the rest of us! They were their mindless workers. I beat the sand and made ungodly noises nothing would make the Eraser let up.

One of the other Erasers knelt down next to me smiling maliciously. I swung at him, but he caught my arms and twisted them to the verge of breaking them.

"You're a little far from home, aren't you?"

I spat at him. He chuckled as he licked it off his face with his huge Eraser tongue.

"The Director was getting worried. He was missing his precious number one. He was even bringing in agents all the way from the East Coast, the Institute division, to look for you," he cooed with a hypnotizing smoothness.

I struggled some more, but he tightened his grip.

"Because there were so many of us looking for you, we ended up finding several other bird kids who escaped too. All because of you. Isn't that great?"

I could only glare at him.

"Well, we'd better hurry and get you to the truck. You'll be back in time for supper!"

"Why don't you save yourself the gas money and just kill me."

The Eraser laughed.

"Trust me, I'd love to kill you, but I have orders to bring you back-" "Did you not hear me? I said_ I'd rather die_!"

"Now, now. Let's not do anything rash, deary."

With that I pushed my arms that he still held back at his face, slamming him in the nose. He squealed and growled as he recoiled then brought his fist down on my head. The world blacked out.

**Well, this is certainly an interesting concept, no? Anyway, this is completely AU for obvious reasons. I'm not going to include any of the Maximum Ride characters, only the concept of the bird kids and such so if you know RvB, you should be able to follow this. I don't know if I'll include any of the Blood Gulchers, but I will include the Freelancers for sure. This first one is Carolina, but we will meet the other Lancers along the way.  
Basically, the School is the Mother of Invention and Itex is Project Freelancer. The Director is the Director. It's pretty simple.**

**Looking forward to it.**


	2. New Duo

**I do not own Red vs Blue. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.**  
**I do not own Maximum Ride. It belongs to James Patterson.**

I awoke a few minutes later. Just long enough for them to cuff my hands and bind my legs 'cause this wasn't a movie. You pass out, but you do regain consciousness pretty soon again.

The first Eraser hefted me over his shoulder like I was some old school boombox and headed off to what I could squint out was a moving truck. I made some pathetic attempt at struggling, but the wolf-man simply constricted his grip. I wasn't going anywhere.

The back of the truck was lifted up garage-style, and I found it was full of large dog crates. One of them was being opened just for me. I was dumped inside like garbage to a trashcan, and, with a few short clicks, was locked within it. They slid me to the back, whining when I didn't crash against it more dramatically.

I took what was my last glimpse of sunlight through the slits of the metal crate before an echoing creak and slam shut out the few rays of wonderful sunshine I would probably see in a good long while. They would make sure of that.

I waited for my night vision to kick in, came with the whole mutant bird freak packaged, as my eyes strained to see into the other cages. There were a few dark figures that I could make out in the twisted mass of metal bars.

Other experiments made me nervous. You would think that we would share some sort of brotherly bond, being tortured together –victims of the same horrors. But, in reality, they were all mostly stark-raving insane or just utterly creepy. As such, I was hesitant in making contact with them. Maybe, if I just stayed quiet they would leave me alone.

My night vision brought into focus their malnourished and tortured forms. Curled up in the cages, you'd think they_ were_ dogs. Trying to hide within themselves. Burying their heads in the ground like ostriches. Trying to take themselves away from where they were by any means their mind could imagine.

I was actively fighting the flashbacks of when I was tortured. How I tried to survive.

_Sigma._

I shuddered. It was a name I feared. The name of one of my torturers. He would come in often wearing a special type of jumpsuit that he lathered in gasoline before lighting it ablaze. He was always coming up with new ways to test me. Study me. It's hard to resist someone who was literally on fire.

I pushed the thought away. He was gone. I didn't know where he was, but, for whatever reason, he was gone. I often tried to imagine the most horrible demise for him. Most involved burning to death in his own suit. Hey, if it helped me sleep at night, my mental revenge was like twisted therapy.

I shifted myself so I could survey the extent of damage done to me on the beach. I tried to make as little noise as possible. Tried not to draw attention to myself.

My head was verging on a fairly decent headache, but my right leg was shredded and still oozing pretty good. All things considered though, it could have been worse. I slipped off one of my shirts (I always wore extras just for this purpose) and tenderly wrapped it around my calf. I bit my lip hard and a few tears squeezed out as I tied it off. I was a fast healer. Well, fast compared to normal people. But this one was gonna be a while, I could already tell.

I rocked a little and forced myself to breathe as I waited for the pain to ebb down.

"BLOOD!" I heard a shriveled voice in the cage next to mine shriek. The whole place jumped from the sudden noise.

I turned to see who was there. It was a tiny, little girl. Bald except for a few spots of dark, tangled hair. Her eyes were sunken in her head, and her wings were growing off the front of her instead of the back. Or…was her head just on backwards?

I scooted back from her even though we were separated by metal cages. She was already crammed to the very corner of her own cage. Whimpering now with her wings wrapped around her.

I was practically immune to the sight of blood. Especially my own. But I couldn't know what kind of torture they made her go through. Maybe blood to her was like what fire was to me?

"Bloooood." I heard a voice in another cage say. Fingers reached out through the cage bars toward me.

"Caaaaaan IIIIIIII haaaaaave?" The slow voice now reached it's other set of fingers out toward me.

I now scooted away from that one which meant making me closest to the girl. If I had a choice between scared girl and creepy thing, I'd choose scared girl.

Then _another_ set of fingers reached out through the same cage! _What the_?

"Hey, new girl!" I heard another voice ask me. This one sounded pretty normal. I looked and found him in a cage toward the door. "Do you have a bobbypin?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. What did he think I was?

"Anything metal and kinda malleable? Or, if you just happen to have a lockpicking kit on you that would work too."

I continued giving him a confused stare then figured out he honestly wanted an answer.

"No."

"Eh. A guy can hope."

I could have been wrong, but I thought I saw him _smile_. I deepened my frown. I didn't know what he thought smiling would accomplish, but it just made me mad that he could smile at a time like this. Did he know what was going to happen to us? What could possibly possess him to _smile_?

There was no point in being brave here. Bravery didn't do anything for you here. Escape was the only hopeful thing we thought of. That was out of self-preservation. There was no bravery in that. Just pure desperation and animal instinct. I kinda wanted to kick him.

The minutes passed to hours and to days. I put myself in shut down mode. Another self-preservation technique I perfected. I just zoned out the world. Trying to blend together the times between when I slept. Keep myself in a muted haze. Calm and zen-like. If I tuned out the world, it seemed like time moved faster. The less I moved, the less energy I spent, the less I felt the hunger that always clawed at my stomach.

More days passed. I could feel the zen-mode was starting to work easier now. That wasn't a good thing in the long term. It basically meant I was dying, but, in the short term, it meant I wasn't conscious enough for pain and thirst.

I was awoken from my zen-mode by a horrible racket. Someone was beating on their cage viciously.

"Wake up! Please! Anybody! I don't want to be the last one! No!"

It was that boy from before. He was kicking the cage. Pleaing and screaming. At first I was going to yell at him to shut up. There was no way I could sleep with that racket, but, what he said caught my attention.

'The last one?' Did that mean…

I looked over at the other cages. No one was moving. No one was breathing.

They were all dead.

Creepy-blood-girl was even lying sprawled out in the cage. Her eyes open, but unblinking.

I quickly sat up feeling exactly what that boy was feeling.

"I'm here!" I called out to him.

I was never so scared in my life. I was literally surrounded by decaying corpses of fellow experiments. I didn't know how I could handle being in this truck by myself. Just waiting to die.

I was holding out that they would bring us back to torture us some more. I didn't think they would actually let us _die _here!

I made it my personal goal to keep that boy alive. That way, at least, I wouldn't be the last one alive.

The boy practically jumped through his cage when I called to him. It seemed if he could have leapt into my cage with me, he would have. He was almost in tears.

"Whoever you are, _don't die!_ We're gonna get through this, okay?"

There was that smile again. Much more forced, but it was still there.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that I wasn't planning on getting through anything. I just didn't want to die alone.

That's when I noticed something in creepy-girl's cage. In her cage, binding her hands, was a thing of metal wire.

I didn't know if karma just liked that boy better than me, but I'd take his good luck any day. I reached through and pulled her cage closer to mine. Slowly I managed to unravel the wire from around her cold hands. Why did they decide to bind her like that and why hadn't she broken free of it earlier, I had no idea. I didn't really care at this point.

"Hey, can you actually pick locks?" I said, as I slid the metal wire across to his cage. He picked it up and almost instantly had it fashioned into a lock pick. Within seconds, the lock was picked and the door to his cage swung open. He tumbled out and stretched when he drew himself up to full height, opening his wings out wide.

Satisfied with his new mobility, he made his way over to my cage and unlocked it in a jiffy. I about knocked him over as I burst out of the cage so fast I nearly took out his legs with the cage door. Babying my leg, I still felt an unbelievable rush in simply standing again.

I wasted no time and walked/limped straight over to the door. I was about to pull the handle up when the boy stopped me.

"Do you think we should travel together? It might be easier if you had a wingman. No pun intended." Smile.

I was stunned. I never really considered working with anyone…ever. I protected myself. That was hard enough as it was. Although, the offer was tempting. There were certainly advantages in having an ally.

"Can you fly?" I poined to his wings.

I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't. Several experiments had appendages that they couldn't use, extra legs or a cat's tail, that just hung off them like dead weight. Sorry, but if he couldn't fly, I was leaving him. I had the best chance of escape in the air. I was putting that in priority over being nice.

He nodded as he unfurled his tan wings as if that was some sort of confirmation he could, indeed, fly.

"Okay then…" I wasn't sure about this. And, if worst came to worst, I could just ditch him.

"Awesome." He grabbed hold of the handle too, and, together, we lifted the door up. It was night in the outside world. Good for us stealth-wise, but disappointing in the fact that we had been living in darkness the whole time we were in the truck.

We jumped out of that death machine and into the sky. Hopefully, those scumbags wouldn't find us ever again this time.

**So, I don't know if anyone besides me even likes both these fandoms, but I'm gonna keep writing anyway.**  
**Review if you so desire.**

**Looking forward to it.**


	3. The Sparring Victim and the Model

**I do not own Red vs Blue. Red vs Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth.**  
**I do not own Maximum Ride. Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson.**

We flew as high up as I could tolerate the cold night air. Navigating was hard at night. Everything either showed up as a glowing spot or a dark spot. No registering of height of the terrain or places that were open versus concealed. The only plus was it instantly told you population.

"We need food first!" The boy called to me over the wind.

I couldn't agree more, but that was risky. It was my every instinct to just fly, but I couldn't do that when I was this close to passing out.

"There!" He shouted, then started to descend.

A panic rushed through me. We didn't know what was down there! How could _he _know the best place?

I didn't like this working with someone else thing so far. If it was gonna get me captured again, I wasn't gonna do it, but he seemed confident. I still liked the idea of having another set of eyes to watch my back so I followed.

We landed in a small, suburban neighborhood. It looked quaint. The houses all looked the same with uniform paint jobs and the same tree in the front yard.

"What are we going to do here?" I asked.

"Pick a house."

"Why?"

"We're going to see who's home."

I was completely dumbfounded. I almost asked another question, but he sauntered off to the sidewalk like he didn't have huge wings sticking off the back of him! He motioned for me to follow him like some shy dog. I don't know what I was thinking, but I followed him.

Moving along the sidewalk, I tried to disappear into the boy's shadow. I felt utterly exposed like this.

"This one looks nice." The boy said, moving up the driveway and to the front door. The porch light wasn't on. No lights were coming from inside the house either. Never the less, he walked straight up and rang the doorbell.

"What are you doing? They're probably sleeping! They're gonna call the cops!"

I was two seconds from leaving.

"Or they're not here."

We waited a moment, but nothing happened. He rang the doorbell two more times for good measure, but no one came to the door.

"Now what?" I asked the genius that was in charge of this brilliant plan.

He looked under the welcome mat and lo and behold there was a key. Karma certainly had its favorites.

"See? I didn't even need to use my lock pick." With a flick of his wrist, the door was opened and we went inside.

I wasn't the least bit cool with this plan. I was still waiting for someone to come down the stairs with a baseball bat or an alarm system to trigger, but none did.

The boy walked brazenly through the cute, little house. Even pretending to admire the pictures that hung on the walls, but we both practically fainted when he opened the pantry to reveal it was stocked to the brim with food! For a moment we just stared at it. The most beautiful sight we had ever seen.

"Alright, let's get to it!"

I ripped off a blanket from one of the beds upstairs that became what we would carry our food in. Systematically stripping the food that was eatable as it was down from the shelves, we piled it in the center of the blanket, drew up the edges, and marched out the backdoor. Our bag of loot was going to be heavy, but I guess that was the good thing about having a partner in crime.

As we awkwardly took off with our interesting baggage, and the boy grew instant respect from me. Although it was criminal to break into someone's house and steal their food, it was ingenious and got us what we needed faster than anything I would have come up with. Maybe he wasn't half bad.

We couldn't fly as high or nearly as long as we normally could. Both the weight of the food and the exhaustion setting in.

I set my mind to scanning the ground for a place void of lights. Preferably dense forest. I found what would be the closest thing I could come by to that, and, this time, I was the one calling the shots.

I pointed to the ground and started to descend. He had no choice but to follow me. Although, he didn't seem to have a problem with it.

We smashed through the trees, falling for the last part of the landing in protection of our wings that we were forced to fold or risk getting them snapped off by branches.

The impact wasn't fun. My leg slammed against a tree and then the ground when we finally touched down. I fell and held my calf for a second waiting for the initial pain to subside.

The boy got a nasty scratch on his arm, but it didn't seem to bother him that much as he hurried to gather up all the food that had fallen out of the blanket. He stopped when he noticed me.

"Are you okay?" He asked, as he offered a hand to help me up.

I waved his hand off. I was just gonna chill here on the ground for a while.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just…hurt my leg again. It'll be okay."

It didn't look like I convinced him as he drug the pile of food closer to me.

"What do you like?" He asked, sifting through the food.

"Anything."

He through me a box of cereal. I opened it to find some of it had already been eaten, but did I care? Heck no.

He got open a can of peanuts and started chowing.

While I was eating, I sized this new boy up.

He was about my age, it seemed. Which was pretty old for an experiment. We must have been a successful batch or modeled after a successful past experiment.

His wings weren't in the best condition though. They were dirty and matted. I didn't know how he could fly at all.

He had a strong build. Brownish hair that was long. Evidence of neglect. Although, if your only goal was to stay alive, your hair isn't exactly a big deal.

Brown eyes. Except for his left. It was white and red. Was he blind in that eye? Many experiments had some sort of thing wrong with them. At least it wasn't both his eyes.

"Sparring accident." He said, noticing I was staring at his eye.

"Sparring? They made you _spar_? I thought they only made Erasers do that."

"Yeah, well, who did you think they sparred against? Not each other. That wouldn't make any sense. _We're_ the ones they're supposed to know how to capture and subdue."

That was the first bitter or negative phrase I think I'd ever heard him utter.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I'm fine now."

"How long ago did that happen?"

"Last week."

"Last week? How could you have healed so fast? Even _I _couldn't."

"I'm _very _good at healing."

He came over next to me and placed a hand on my hurt leg. I instantly retracted. I didn't know what he was trying to do.

"Hold still." He insisted.

Then the pain in my leg vanished. I unwrapped my leg from the bloody shirt then saw that it was completely fine. All that was left were a few white scar lines.

I looked at him in amazement.

"My eye I could heal, but my vision never came back to it. Some things just can't be fixed. Like the other experiments in the truck. They were all too malnourished. I can't just _magically _put food in their stomachs. And your cage was too far away for me to heal your leg earlier. Sorry."

Why was he apologizing to _me_? _He_ was the one that helped me escape and healed my leg.

"So how did you learn how to pick locks then? Is that your other mysterious power?"

"No." He laughed. "No. I was held at the Institute up in New York City. I broke out of there once and escaped into the city. A few guys took me in and made me street smart. Taught me all kinds of things I probably shouldn't know. Once I learned how to lock pick, I escaped from the Institute several more times. I think they got fed up with me so the last time the caught me, they put me on that truck to ship me somewhere else. Not that that was gonna help them any. Locks are still locks. There and here and everywhere else."

"You escaped _more than once_?"

"Seven. Eight if you count breaking out of the truck."

"You were already on the coast! Why didn't you just hop a boat and get out of the country! They couldn't get you there!"

"True. But, I don't know, I just stuck to what I knew worked. I had people that would hide me when I escaped there. That system worked for the most part. Besides, if they caught me, they couldn't keep me for long."

I envied that boy so much. Although, I thought he was pretty stupid. I would have been out of there in half a heartbeat.

"They captured me in one of the Carolinas. I was literally on my way to stow away on a ship and get out of here when they caught me. Unlike _some people_, that was the first time I had ever escaped. Except, I was held somewhere else. I was held somewhere in the desert. I just kept traveling east until I hit the ocean."

"You flew all the way across the country! You're tough, model girl."

"Model?"

"You know. You were a model. An "example" of what experiments like us were. I could tell from what nice shape you were in when they loaded you on. They must have taken care of you."

"'_Taken care of me_!'" I threw down the now empty box of cereal. "They didn't 'take care of me' at all! They _tortured_ me just like everyone else! Yes, I was the model experiment if you mean by 'model' that I was the one that they made parade around _naked_ and be _molested_ by scientists from other companies! Yes, they kept me in a good condition, but that just meant that they experimented with my _mind_ more than my body! You have _no idea_ what I've been through! No, boy from New York! I was not _taken care of_!"

With that I stomped off, but I could hear him following me.

"Carolina! I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way!"

"Carolina?" I asked, trying to draw the conversation to anything but my torture.

"Well, you can call me York if you want?"

I didn't have to look to see that he was doing that stupid smiling thing again.

"So what's our plan of action, Carolina?"

I was still unsure about the name thing. I didn't really have a name. The scientists called me 'Number One.' But that was hardly a name. I guess Carolina would have to do.

"Eat as much as we can. Sleep. Then head to the coast as quick as we can. Get on a boat and-"

"No, no, no, no." New York shook his head.

"What's wrong." I asked, sternly.

"Do you know what the definition of 'insanity' is?"

"It means you're crazy."

"That's the more common definition. Another is 'doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.'"

I glared at him. "You're point?"

"You just think that if you try to go for the coast the same thing won't happen again?"

"Well, obviously going to _New York City_ isn't going to work so what's _your _idea, city boy!"

"Wyoming."

"What?"

"I've heard that in Wyoming there is a guy who harbors experiments like us. Teaches them how to survive in the world. How to disguise themselves. Where the best places are to hide out. The whole kit n caboodle. That's our best bet. We're probably a lot closer to Wyoming than the coast anyway."

I wasn't sure about this. I was hesitant. I didn't even know if I knew where Wyoming was!

"Trust me, Carolina. And if we can't find that guy, we can just zoom right on into Canada. The Rockies are there and that's practically a safe passage right into Canada. No one lives that high up anyway. See? I even got us a _back up plan_! Now are we gonna go for it or not?"

"After we eat more and catch up on sleep. We're gonna need it."

"Oh yeah. Right." Smile.

We ate practically all the food we could manage. I had forgotten what it felt like to be full. What it felt like when my stomach wasn't crying out for nourishment. There was still some food left which was good. Another good thing was that we strategically ate all the stuff that was in perishable containers. That way we could use the blanket to sleep with without having to worry about the food getting damaged.

Now, I wasn't sure how he felt about it, there was only one blanket, and it was getting cold. We were going to end up sleeping pretty close to each other.

I wasn't worried though. Frankly, when you have DNA as screwed up as ours, certain…_parts _don't function. At least mine didn't. I wasn't worried about rape. But that didn't mean we didn't have the feelings that went with it.

I found a place in a tree up high. It would at least give us the advantage if anyone found us. We'd hear a chopper a mile away, and, if they climbed up, we'd most likely hear them too. All we'd have to do then was jump out and fly away.

But what part of escaping would that be if we didn't risk danger at all times?

The branch was wide enough and angled between another branch in such a way that it would support two people.

Honestly, I'd never been around another person this long who wasn't trying to mentally scar me which was a huge concept to grasp. Now, I was sleeping next to someone. Physical contact for that long was going to be a new challenge to overcome.

Sleeping was going to be another demon in itself. I so badly didn't want to be captured again; I didn't think I_ could_ close my eyes. I didn't trust that I would wake up free again but instead, back in a lab, awaiting my next round of torture.

I, in a stroke of genius, solved several problems for us.

"I'll be lookout for a few hours and keep watch and make sure no Erasers sneak up on us."

"And that no one falls out of the tree?"

"Exactly."

"Sounds great. Wake me up when it's my turn."

With that, he nonchalantly sat down next to me and pulled the blanket over himself, leaving plenty of blanket for me. He curled up and closed his eyes like it was that simple. Everything was just hunky dory in the world.

This boy carried no baggage with him. He was there to live his life. I had nothing but respect for him for that. It was something that I just didn't think _I_ could do though. I had been through too much to simply let it go.

It was obvious New York was having a much harder time actually_ falling_ asleep than _deciding _to go to sleep though. He tossed and turned frequently. Adjusting the blanket self-consciously, afraid he was hogging too much of it. I could see his good eye opening just a slight bit to look at me. To make sure I was still keeping my end of the deal?

Eventually, his breathing slowed, and his form became as still as the night around us.

From our high perch, I could see the faint glow of whatever town we were near. Where people were living their normal, human lives.

This guy in Wyoming might be able to teach New York how to live in the real world, but I was pretty sure that _I _was a lost cause. I just didn't have the personality or the charisma. But I also didn't have a fully thought-out alternative plan of my own.

If we ever found that guy, I might just leave New York with him and head off to Canada like he suggested.

I could figure out how to survive just as long as there weren't people out to kill me. I figured hunting couldn't be that hard. Especially with my certain extra advantage. The animals did it, and I was clearly a little more animal that regular people. I was sure I could do it. Then I'd be free. Forever.

It was a beautiful, beautiful idea.

**Welp, that was the latest product of my boredom. Have fun. Looking forward to it.**


	4. The Angel Twins

**I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to Rooster Teeth.**  
**I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.**

I adjusted my sitting position. Moving further away from New York. If I was gonna get use to this whole being-around-someone thing, I was gonna break myself in a little at a time. Snuggling wasn't going to happen for a while –if at all.

York stretched his hand out in my direction, hitting nothing.

With a sudden jolt, he sat up.

I about fell out of the tree in surprise.

"What is it!" I said, looking for some sort of attacker I just didn't see.

He calmed himself quickly although his heart was still racing.

"I thought you left." He panted.

He, embarrassed or something, quickly wrapped the blanket back around himself and laid down like he was going to sleep but sat right back up again.

"It's my turn to keep watch. Here." He threw all the blanket at me, still frantic from whatever spooked him.

I slowly wrapped the blanket around myself.

I didn't believe for a second his panic was about me leaving. What did he care if I left? It was probably a nightmare. I sure had plenty of those. _That_ I understood.

It was cold so I left him a good amount of slack blanket for him to use while I tried some attempt at sleeping.

Although, that wasn't going to happen until he calmed down. He was still breathing heavily, and he wasn't being very still. He just couldn't seem to find a comfortable sitting position.

I sat up. I had to fix this.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my voice making him jump again.

"Nothing. I'm fine. You get some sleep, Carolina." He smiled, as he did start to calm down a little, rubbing the crinkly skin around his bad eye.

I looked him down to make sure he was telling the truth.

"You only slept a few hours…"

"I know, but dawn's coming soon; we'll have to get going then. You get all the rest you can. I can't have my partner slowing me down just because they're tired." He teased.

I wasn't in the teasing mood. I was _never _in a teasing mood.

I guess that was the best answer I was going to get. No sense prying for information I didn't care about from someone who wouldn't be around for very long. Well, however far away Wyoming was.

I leaned on the tree. The bark was scratchy on my skin. I didn't really care though. I had far more taxing things to think about. Like sleeping.

My eyelids were closed, but no sleep was coming. I tried to will myself to sleep. You'd think I'd wear myself out from thinking so hard about things, but my mind just couldn't seem to slow.

Dawn came just as New York predicted. He didn't even need to wake me up. I seemed to recharge when the sun came. Although I didn't sleep, it seemed I didn't need it.

I remembered how the sun looked when it peaked over the horizon of the ocean. The way its rays danced off the excited water.

I stretched my wings out. Letting the morning rays warm them for a moment.

Swiftly, I jumped out of the tree and glided to the ground. York was less graceful, but his wings were in worse shape than mine. It looked like he'd never cleaned them. They wouldn't fold against his back properly with the feathers all dirty and broken. To me, whom the scientists obsessed over the condition of my wings, it looked almost painful. I guess I'd have to teach him to preen later.

With all our gear gathered up into the blanket, we took off again. York insisted on carrying the bag first. I guess even in laboratories, chivalry finds some light to grow from.

We were heading north. Both of us, from what I could tell, had a vague instinct of direction. Still, I didn't like not knowing exactly where I was going.

When lunchtime rolled around, we attempted to eat mid-flight, but all that accomplished was us dropping a bag of pretzels from thousands of feet up in the air down on to unsuspecting countryside below.

We agreed that it was just best to land.

"We gotta make this fast. I don't like being on the ground during the day." I instructed, as we touched down in a field.

We found some shade under a tree, but it was still too close for comfort to a road and small town.

I could hear the cars rolling past. Couldn't we have picked a better spot to land?

"It'll be fine, Carolina. We're just making a quick pit stop for refueling." York assured me, already unfolding the blanket and tossing me a bag of dried fruit.

York was already in his third bag of Oreos when I was deciding how to ration out our food. If we made it to Wyoming, how long would it take to find this guy? If we did find him, we wouldn't need to be so sparing which would give us more energy and make us more efficient. However, if we never found this guy, we'd have a whole other journey to Canada. We would need as much food as we could get if we wanted to get out of there before we could be tracked again.

This was beginning to mess with my head a little.

"Having a little picnic, are we?"

We both jumped as a man must have stopped his car and gotten out. This man had a wonderfully silky voice and looked like he must have been on his way to a runway shooting.

Crap.

I didn't even have a second of hesitation. I took off running and launched myself into the air. I pumped my wings so hard I didn't care how much they hurt. I just needed to get airborne.

I had the worst sense of deja vu when I began to drop from a sudden increase of weight around my ankles.

"You'd think you'd learn by now!" The Eraser growled, as I began to plummet from the sky.

I fell down hard. I hoped I hurt the Eraser when I did, but, somehow, I doubted it. Pain seemed to be something only _I _was familiar with.

Struggling, I did my best to get free of the Eraser's grip, but he held me in place on the ground. I was like a fish on a line. He would just wait until I tired. Then he would net me up and gut me at home.

Suddenly, the weight was released as the Eraser was flung off of me! Dragging me to my feet was York, who revealed to me that Erasers could, in fact, bleed. His solid kick had knocked the wolf thing straight in the jaw. Blood fell from his mouth and into the grass.

"Just _run_!" York shouted, pushing me ahead of him.

This time, I took his advice. I was already scouting ahead to find a place to hide. We couldn't outrun Erasers forever. Their stamina was far greater than ours.

That's when I spotted the tent. It was huge and red and looked like it belonged to a circus. Personally, I didn't care if it belonged to circus or the insane asylum, I was going there. Sure it wasn't the best shelter, but it was big enough to lose someone in. Probably had lots of great hiding places too.  
I looked out my peripheral and saw York was keeping up pace. He was clearly synced up with my plan and headed right for the tent.

We approached it and dove under, sliding into the humid tent. There were haystacks piled in a corner, and we jumped behind them. It was probably the worst hiding spot ever, but we didn't have much of a choice.

I could hear the Eraser chasing after us. He approached the tent entrance and started searching for us.

We ducked down, praying that he wouldn't, by some miracle, find us.

"_Hey_! What are you doing here?"  
A stranger called out, sounding angry.

Our hearts froze as we prepared to be lunchmeat.

"Hey! I'm talkin' to you, dog breath! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm here to track two unusual children. One girl and one boy."

That was the Eraser! Someone was confronting the _Eraser_! I so badly wanted to see who it was, but I didn't want to see the poor soul beaten to a pulp so I stayed down.

"This is the circus. That's what most of were at one point. Now scram before I throw you out myself!"

"You don't understand, sir. These children have genetically engineered _bird's wings_ and are of extremely high value-"  
"Of course they are! They're our star attraction, and they're _staying here_! But if you want to see them, you'll have to wait until the next show just like everyone else! Now, goodbye, doggie!" With that, I heard some more footsteps come out. The Eraser was now outnumbered considerably. I almost wanted to laugh this was so beautiful!

"Arggg!" The Eraser growled, then left the tent in a huff.

We sunk down against the haystacks.

"I'm just gonna lay here while I restart my heart." York said, as he pretended to faint.

"What did you think he meant by 'star attractions?'" I asked.

"I was wondering about that too. Do you think he was covering for us? Or do you think that there are others like us here?"

"I don't know."

"There's only one way to find out?"

"And that's by _buying tickets_."

It was the voice from before. The one that intimidated the Eraser. He was peering over the stacks at us. I could see why he was intimidated. He was easily seven feet tall and looked like he had been either bench pressing elephants or had a major steroid addiction.

We didn't need a second hint, and we got out of there.

York started to head toward the crowd that was gathering outside the tent.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought we were going to see the other bird kids."

"Who cares! We need to get out of here before that Eraser comes back!"

"But what about _them_! What if they want to meet with that guy in Wyoming too?"

"York! There _are_ no others! Even if there were, they're here because they want to be! This is a circus! Not a prisoner of war camp!"  
"But!"

"York! I'll leave you if you don't come!"

That seemed to stop him in his tracks. He seemed extremely flustered over this situation that I deemed to be a no-brainer: Run away before we died.

"I didn't _have _to save you from that truck! I _chose_ to! Now, let's at least go see if there are actually bird kids in there! If there are,_ then_ we can decide what to do!"

I was taken aback. I wasn't expecting this kind of resistance. But he did have a point. He did save me. I couldn't ignore that.

Sighing heavily and gnashing my teeth, I agreed.

The only good thing was we didn't need to hide our wings. Apparently, lots of people wore fake wings to this circus. The only thing we needed to do was sneak in without paying because we had zip-o dinero.

That's not a problem when you have your friendly, neighborhood infiltration specialist with you. That, and the tent isn't exactly a fortress.

We took two seats where they were available. I already determined I hated this because it was wasting precious time, but, hey, if Mr. Hero wanted to save the day instead of going on his little Wyoming mission, it wasn't skin off my back. I was merely making a stop in Wyoming. Canada was my real destination.

The lights dimmed and two huge spotlights circled the center ring of the circus. Stopping when a man in a red tux and huge top hat stood on top of a small platform in the middle. He waved to the cheering crowd, bowing a few times before raising a microphone to his mouth.

"Welcome to the most spectacular event ever to hit this town! Ricky's Rolling Circus has come around!"

The crowd clapped and hollered.

The event was loud and crowded and basically followed the same pattern: ringleader would announce the act, audience would cheer, and the act would preform in one of the three circles.

The three-at-once thing was, in theory, good, but, in reality, no one could see the acts in any of the rings besides the one they were closest to. It was like ADD hell.

Suddenly, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Then I noticed them. Slowly but surely, the audience around us became populated with supermodels and cheerleaders. Perfect features in every way. I glanced nonchalantly at the exit to see many more of them were pouring in –all headed our direction. I softly kicked York with my foot. He reluctantly tore his eyes away from the display and noticed them immediately.

He gave me a look of pure horror.

Suddenly the lights went out and a spotlight appeared. The ringleader was back in the center, and all the other acts had cleared out of the outer rings.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Our star attractions! The-"

York jumped up on top of his seat with his arms stretched open wide.

"Thank you! Thank You!" York announced, as he snapped his tan wings open.

The audience, including me, gasped in astonishment.

Then he reached down and grabbed my hand. I stood up as well but completely deer-in-headlights. He nudged me, and I slowly unfurled my wings.

I knew where this was going. It was smart, but that didn't mean I liked it any better.

The crowd cheered. The Erasers growled at us. They couldn't get us with half the audience watching.

York took off, flapping high above the crowd. I took off after him.

We landed on one of the platforms that was practically at the top of the tent. It was where the trapeze artists would climb to before they started their routine.

The ringleader was clearly confused, and the spotlight operator had no choice but to shine on us.

"What are you doing?"

Looking behind us, we saw two of the trapeze artists dressed in purple and green leotards. They were both blonde and confused as heck.

"Um, yeah, we're sorta running for our lives right now. Sorry if we upstaged you or whatever." York shrugged.

"Who are you? And why do you have wings?" The boy asked.

"Long story." I said flatly.

"_But_ we can tell you the story if you let us talk to you for a little bit." York threw in noticing the feathers on their backs.

I gave him a look. _This_ was the reason we were stuck in this situation in the first place. He remained unfazed.

"Sure. Just hang up here if you want until we finish our act. Then the show'll be over, and we can talk after we close up." The boy said.

We nodded. Not like we had any choice.

The boy and girl walked to the edge of the platform. The crowd cheered as they waved. Then, the opened their wings. I couldn't believe it. No strings. No wires. Just bone and flesh like us. York gave me the biggest, snarkiest smirk I've ever seen.

They jumped off the platform together, preforming several midair flips and somersaults in perfect unison. Just before they hit the ground, they snapped open their wings and lifted above the crowd. They preformed several more midair acrobatics before finishing their routine and landing next to the ringleader.

The audience was dismissed, and the boy flew back up to us.

He was sweaty and short of breath from all his stunts, but he managed to relay that he wanted us to follow him.

I was apprehensive. There were surely Erasers waiting for us. But, then again, the crowd provided too many witnesses. We were probably still in the clear, but I didn't want to test it.

Gliding down, we practically shadowed the other bird kids, staying as close as we could to them. They walked outside to where they had erected a short, wide platform where some of the crowd had already gathered.

The banner on it said, "Angel Twins!" in huge letters.

They hopped up and we did too. We just sat toward the back of the platform. The crowd began shouting out questions.

"Yes, our wings are real. Yes, we were born with them. No, you may not touch them. Yes, we are actually twins. No, we do not claim to be actual angels. We have been at the circus our whole lives. We were hatched out of eggs. No, I do not lay eggs. No we do not migrate. No our crap does not look like birds'. We cannot make bird noises. We are actually terrible singers. Anything else?" The girl put her hands on her hips with vehement sarcasm that silenced the crowd.

"What my sister_ means_ to say is that of course you many touch our wings. And if you have any other questions feel free to shout them out. We'd be_ happy _to answer them." He glared at his sister as he tried to mentally apologize to the crowd.

Kids slowly ventured toward the front of the crowd as they, the girl rather reluctantly, extended his wings out so they could pet the feathers.

"Who're they?" Someone said, pointing to us.

"Yeah, how come they have wings too?"

"Were you from the same nest?"

"These are… the _other_ Angel Twins. We alternate performances so the other set can have time to rest." The boy tried to explain.

"Yeah, we're working on a new routine that will feature all four of us. We were just testing out the crowd's reaction. How did you like it?" York added as he came forward, the people person he was.

The crowd let out some cheering as the other girl and I sighed in disbelief that they were actually buying that.

"May I have a feather?" I recognized that brand of soft and luscious voice. It was an Eraser. He came up to the circus girl and ripped out a handful of her feathers!

The girl gasped in pain, as he couldn't believe what just happened.  
"Hey!" The boy said, but the Eraser quickly flashed his fangs.

The boy stepped back.

"It'll be a souvenir." He hissed as he gave a short glare at us two too. Then he sulked off.

"Can I have one too?"

"Yeah, me too!"

The kids that were petting their wings now began pulling savagely at them.

"No, no, kids. My wings are not- OW! Stop guys! Please! That- that's hurting me!" The boy cried as he tried to pull away from them, but he kids just kept on going. Feathers were flying left and right.

This had to be stopped.  
I jumped off the platform and shoved my way, rather roughly, between the kids and the twins.  
"Go home." I said. I didn't shout, but I let some venom snake through. I let them know I meant business.

The kids backed away. One almost cried. But slowly the crowd ebbed leaving us four alone finally.

"Thanks." The boy said, as he painfully retracted his wings that were now bleeding profusely.

"And that's why I don't let those vermin touch my wings." His sister huffed, obviously blaming the whole situation on him; tears had welled up in her eyes.

"Who _was_ that guy!" The brother shook his head violently, some anger rising up.

"That was an Eraser. He's actually a mutant like us. Except, instead of wings, they can go werewolf-y. Fangs and claws and all. They're the ones chasing us."

"Really?" The boy asked.

"That's a little hard to believe." The girl said.

"Well, it's also hard to believe that you hatched out of eggs." I retorted.

She shot me a look, but surrendered. She must have had some doubts about that too.

They made their way to the back of the tent where there was some first aid stuff. They began tending their wounds.

"Sorry, but I just can't believe that there's…others! Others like us!" The boy turned to his twin while applying some disinfecting cream onto her wings.

"I can get that for you." York said, walking up to the twins.

Within a few moments, the blood stopped dripping from their wings and the pain stopped. They looked like the just didn't know how to handle that. Not surprising though. The tissue and muscle was healed, but it would be a while before their feathers grew back.

"Who are you? And why did you come here? Did someone send you?"

"Calm down, sis! Let them answer!" He said as he tenderly wiped off some of the blood that stained his sisters purple and green feathers.

"Well, this is Carolina, and I'm New York. You can just call me York though."

The girl laughed dryly again. "Yeah. I thought those were _states!_ Well, _in that case,_ he's Michigan and I'm Iowa. Nice to meet you."

"Actually, I would probably be North Dakota and you would be South Dakota… because we're twins!" North Dakota said, laughing at his own stupid joke. Probably trying to lighten the mood.

South Dakota snorted.  
"No, but seriously, what_ are_ you guys doing here?" He continued.

"We're running away to Wyoming. There's a guy there that harbors those like us. Gets us back on our feet and into the world. We were wondering if you wanted to come with us!"

North Dakota's eyebrows furrowed.

"Is that true? Are you absolutely sure?" South Dakota was suddenly very interested.

"Well, I'm not one hundred percent, but, I've heard about him for a while. We're going there to check it out. If not, we're going to Canada. We'll be safe there."

"Safe? Why aren't you safe here? Just because of that one jerk doesn't mean that-"

"We told you: The Erasers. They're not here to scare us. They're trying to bring us back to the laboratories where we were created and tortured in most of our lives. Right now, we're kinda running for our lives so you can either join us or not. What's your answer?"

I didn't care if I laid it on a little thick. I wasn't going to sugar coat that we were in mortal danger. People were trying to kill us. I wasn't going to bring in people who weren't prepared for the possibility of a grim outcome.

"I'm in." South Dakota said, challengingly. She aimed her angry look at me like I was just trying to scare her away. That was true. I was trying to scare her away, but I was trying to scare her away with the truth.

"Now, hold up a minute, sis! Don't-"

"I don't care what you say! I hate it here, and I'm leaving! I'm not being a freak just for the entertainment of morons or so Ricky can get rich!"

"But we're safe here. There's no way those Eraser-things can-"

"Are you kidding! Look what happened to my wings! If that's what's going to happen to me again, I'm outta here!"

"But running off with strangers?! How does that even make sense! Where would we get food? Where would we sleep? We're safer here, sis!"

"Not safe enough. I'm going, and you can't stop me."

"Alright, let's go." I said, as I started to walk off. York and South Dakota following me.

North Dakota didn't seem surprised at his sister's rebellion, but he was still hesitant. He only stopped a moment before taking off after his sister and us.

Our group officially doubled. That was two more people to watch our backs, but two more sets of tracks that would be left. We would be easier to track now. We needed to get going as soon as possible. Not to mention the angry circus people that would be searching high and low for their precious star act.

**Thanks for the comment and fav badgerfang! :D**


	5. Connie and Catbirdboy

**So this story is officially off hiatus! *cheers* I apologize for those that followed/faved this story for the long delay. Your long wait is over!  
I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed. I'm trying to keep this one a much more action-oriented fic in hopes that I can make it interesting without the angsty depression that AODWLC. **

**Thank you FallenAngelWolf113 and thewingedcolonel for the favs! **

**I do not own RvB. Red vs Blue belongs to RoosterTeeth.  
I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson. **

* * *

David was having a pretty peaceful sleep when he felt an icy hand wrap around his mouth. He was shocked to wakefulness by the sheer chill of the fingers and palm, but, as he finally regained full alertness, he suddenly registered that he was in possible danger. Acting on a residual instinct, he stiffened and his wings spread slightly in surprise but he did not fight the probable attacker.

When he saw dark woods in front of him, he remembered where he was –anywhere but that evil lab. The blonde also remembered whom he was with. She looked at him with hard, brown eyes.

"They've found us again," Connie whispered angrily. There was a tinge of obligatory fear. It was well justified.

David pried the small brunette's hand from his face so he could breathe properly and listened for the sound of approaching wolf-demons.

"Um…I don't hear anything," he said, but she glared at him to keep silent.

David complied.

They waited and waited….and _waited_. There was no sign or hint of anyone else in the woods but them –not even a suspicious snap of a twig or an ominous bird call.

He'd never had a reason to doubt Connie. She seemed to have a sixth sense about things, but his ears were the best scientists could cook up. They were like two mini sonar dishes that stuck out the top of his blonde head except they were triangular, like cat ears. At first he thought he must have been some sort of messed-up bird-wolf-human hybrid, but he'd seen Eraser ears. They were much different. His were definitely cat ears. And for all their feline worth, his ears didn't hear anything.

David could feel his eyelids growing heavy again as he longed for sleep, but the moment he lost consciousness, a large mass fell out of the sky and collided with the ground right in front of them.

Both the teens were frozen with shock and fear. They didn't scream, and they barely flinched. They were trained over years of pain and torture not to react that way to things that scared them.

The thing rose to its feet even though it crashed down at a speed that should have broken bones on impact. Like a zombie from the grave it stood and drew itself to full height –all eight feet of it. It had a jaw full of razor-sharp teeth protruding from its muzzle and two true wolf ears shot up from the top of his head. The thing that made him different from Erasers, what made them hesitate a moment longer, were the two, enormous wings that erupted off its back.

"_What _is_ this thing?"_ David asked himself, but deep down he knew the answer.

It was an experiment just like him. The Erasers were the products of Project Freelancer's experiments too, but they were used as guards, trackers, and torturers. The impression he got was that they were a finished experiment –that they were bred perfectly to suit their simple purposes. There was no need to experiment on them anymore in the scientists' eyes. Yet the blonde wouldn't put a creating a new version just for kicks and giggles past those horrible people. He, himself, was evidence to that.

The two bird kids stood still. They were waiting for the beast to make its move, but it just stood there hunched over and breathing heavily through its nostrils. That's when they noticed the blood. The beast was holding its arm with its clawed hand and red squeezed between his fingers.

"Let's get out of here! While it's injured!" The brunette tugged at David's arm when the haunting hum of a chopper struck fear into their hearts.

They took off into the air with their genetically engineered wings, one set brown and one set grey, but the black chopper was faster. They were stuck on the ground when a helicopter was in the air. The rotors could chop them to shreds. It was hovering just above them when they heard the branches above them crack and shatter. Regular Erasers dropped in a perfect circle around the two armed with rods that generated harsh electric shocks.

Wielding those things, it was clear this group of Erasers hadn't seen David or Connie before. They must be a new batch.

Surprisingly, the winged Eraser was backed into the circle with them. Were they gonna make them fight him? Was he rogue? What was going on?

"Connie! Get out of here!" David said, as the circle became tighter and tighter.

Surprisingly, the injured, winged Eraser didn't make a move, and Connie wasn't going to wait for a signed invitation.

She took a deep breath and leaped at the nearest wolf-man in the circle and kicked him in the gut. The Eraser grunted and grabbed her arm only to watch as she disappeared and reappeared below him. The dumbfounded Eraser was too slow to react and Connie dodged away and sped off into the woods.

Angered, the others lunged on David. Spinning their rods that hissed with electricity, a few shoved the rods into David's side. David's eyes grew wide as his body was electrified. His hair stood on end and his wings shot out. After a few seconds, they released him and he collapsed to the ground.

The Erasers wondered if they had killed him, if they let their anger in the spur of the moment kill a target they were ordered to capture back if they ever came across it. There was almost a sigh of relief when David groaned, proving he was, indeed, alive.

The wolf mutants circled around him and growled happily, tauntingly, when the winged teen suddenly slapped his hand on the ground and the dirt erupted with an electric pulse. It wasn't that powerful because earth is a very poor conductor, but, with the amount of electricity he absorbed from being tased, it was enough to knock the breaths out of the attackers and throw them to the ground.

Although his body screamed in pain, he forced his legs to move. He managed to push himself around one Eraser and escape the circle. He didn't get far though before one recovered. This Eraser must have been standing the farthest away and so received a smaller amount of the shock. He was able to catch up the quickest.

Shutting off the taser element of the rod, he simply knocked David on the side of the head with it like a billy club. David fell against the side of a tree to catch his balance. He braced for his inevitable capture until he heard a deep growl and a cry of pain.

Looking back behind him, he saw the injured, winged Eraser that crashed earlier standing over the now-dead Eraser that hit him, his clawed hand smeared with a fellow Eraser's deep red blood.

David, still trying to squint through the haze that was forming in his vision because of his hit to the head earlier, slowly backed away from him, but he was curious. Why did this Eraser kill another Eraser? Why did this one have wings? Why was he injured?

He didn't have any more time to wonder. He had to get out of there. It didn't matter what this one looked like or did. The other Erasers were recovering, and he needed to move!

He spun around on his heels and started to run. He weaved through the trees. His sensitive ears were waiting until he judged the chopper was a distance away that he dared an air escape.

When he saw a big enough clearing in the trees (and he could see straight again), he shook out his grey wings and flapped. Take-offs were always the worst part. His back groaned and arched from the strain, but he was airborne. As he rose higher above the trees, he looked for the chopper. He spotted it in the distance, but it didn't seem to be pursuing. He instinctively dipped his grey feathers down so that he was flying as low and fast to the tops of the trees as he dared.

He kept his sharp eyes peeled for Connie. Who knows where she was now, but, somehow, she always found him.

"Connie! Conieee!" he shouted, straining to be heard over the wind.

He quickly weaved out of the way of a particularly tall tree that he almost didn't see because he was looking for his partner. He decided that because of the slight cat DNA he was grafted with that was the reason he wasn't that great at flying. Connie made it look like artwork the way she nimbly banked and turned, but David couldn't hardly angle his wings without sending himself into a spiral of doom.

"Coooonniieeee! Conn-!"

"David! Look out!" A familiar voice called from above him.

He barely had time to look up and see the winged girl he was looking for before a rocket launched right in front of him. The thing blurred past his face and he had no time to react wisely. He twisted himself out of the way of crashing into it, but he just couldn't get his bearings fast enough to avoid crashing down into the trees again.

He flapped his wings desperately before pulling them in in surrender. He didn't want his wings ripped off on impact. Thankfully, he missed the trees because of a fortunately placed pond. He broke the surface and had a little trouble swimming because of his awkward, waterproof wings, but he squished himself through the mud and to the bank eventually.

Connie fluttered to the ground like an angel. She couldn't keep the smirk off her face as he must have looked like a drowned rat.

"You, David, are officially the most uncoordinated being I've ever met."

His ears angled down in shy embarrassment, and he wrung out his clothes with his hands.

"What _was _that thing?"

"I don't know. I didn't have time to investigate before you decided to fail all over the place and crash into a pond. Aren't you glad I make you preen your wings so much now?"

"Yeah. I think they're flyable still. I just want to get all the water out of my clothes."

"No time. That chopper's gonna be looking for us and so are those Erasers. We gotta get out of here."

She opened her chocolate wings to the air.

"But what about that thing that almost hit me?"

"Obviously some sort of new thing Project Freelancer's cooked up. I mean, you saw that one Eraser, right? It had wings. We're obviously not safe in the air anymore. Not that we were to begin with."

"Connie, I think that that Eraser thing might have…um, tried to help me."

He shuffled, embarrassed and unsure.

"What? That's impossible."

"Yeah, but, when I was trying to get away, he killed the Eraser that came after me. And he didn't try to stop me either. So, I don't know, maybe…."

"Maybe what? We can't trust anyone, David. You know this. It must be some sort of trap or trick. Now, come on. We need to find food and shelter."

She wasn't going to debate with him anymore. For Connie, the clock was always ticking.  
She leapt into the sky with hardly a running start and shot into the sky. David needed a little more time and effort, but he caught up soon.

David followed after her lead, trying to stay close and catch the same wind currents. His stomach killed and his headache was still going strong, but he had to deal with the pain. It's just what he had to do if he planned to stay out of a lab.

Still, he wondered about what just happened. He wondered if Connie was thinking about the same thing. David found he did lots of wondering.

* * *

**Sorry that was so short. I just had to get a chapter out so people wouldn't think I was done with RvB stuff. **

**It was a sort of last minute decision for Wash to have cat ears as well as wings. I just couldn't help myself. (Now I promise I won't make Carolina half woman half shark with the shark half 1/4 jaguar no matter how tempting it may be.) XD  
I tried to incorporate Wash's EMP equipement and CT's hologram equipment into this as their own sort of powers. I hope that wasn't too obscure. I also couldn't help myself by making Wash really bad at flying. (He just doesn't want to end up like Georgia, right?)  
Anyway, I can't say when I'll update next because school is starting to avalanche really hard right now so it might not be until I finish this semester that I update. After that, I should have much, much more time. Updates would theoretically be about the same consistency as AODWLC was. I will certainly aim for longer chapters next time, don't worry.**

**Anyway, I hope that you stick with this. I look forward to bringing you more Freelancer AU. **

**(For the Guest (I would PM you if you weren't anonymous) that commented on my last RvB story regarding how I limited myself in the AU, _thank you_. I really appreciate the feedback. It was truly, honestly _constructive_ criticsm that I will definitely keep in mind while writing this. I'm going to attempt to keep this an alternate universe instead of a parallel universe, the latter is certainly what I would describe AODWLC as. Thank you so much. I hope that, if you're reading this story, that it will show my growth as a writer. :) )**

**Also, bad title is bad. If anyone has suggestions for the title, please review and let me know. **

**Review and fav if you so desire!**

**Looking forward to it~**


	6. Silent Wolf, State, Numbers, and Flora

**I'm sorry that I haven't updated in so long. School got crazy and I got lazy. But! I now have a renewed vigor for this story. I'm not sure how long it's going to be, but I have the next chapter completely written. I wrote that and the majority of this one pretty much in one sitting. See what wonders the summer brings? So, again, I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter. The updates will, hopefully, be much more regular now. Thank you for being patient with me!**

**Thank you Ortholeine for faving!**

**I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to RoosterTeeth.  
****I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.**

* * *

"He's back."

David was once again jolted from sleep by Connie's foresight.

Neither of them were sure if her instincts were an actual power or not like David's electricity-thing. Her future-seeing capabilities didn't seem to stretch beyond giving them a couple minutes to batten down the hatches before something terrible happened –never enough time to prevent said terrible happening from taking place.

The boy groaned as precious sleep was ripped away from him like a toy from a child's arms. He wanted nothing more than to let unconsciousness cocoon him in sweet darkness.

Connie shot him a look –the don't-you-dare-make-a-sound look. He blinked furiously to get himself out of the sleepy fog, but he didn't have to put in much effort because the sight that slowly morphed behind the distant trees rid him of any haze he could have still been in.

It was him alright. His huge wings hung carelessly and heavy off his back and dried blood still clung to his shoulder and his hairy fingers. He approached slowly, ever so slowly. He reached out with a hand/claw in a calming manor as if to say, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Connie's wings twitched nervously as she craved action, movement. She'd heard what this specific Eraser could do, and, by the looks of it, he could really follow them in the air if he wanted to. There was no escaping him with ease so she waited for him to make the first move.

It never came.

"What do you want with us?"

Connie glared at David with widened eyes. She couldn't fathom why he would want to ask this monster anything. He knew why they were being chased. They escaped, and an Eraser's only job was to bring them back. Still, David asked anyway.

The winged Eraser's eyes darted around as he thought. After a delay, he simply curled up his fingers except for the pointer finger and directed it straight toward them then he growled, but not to threaten.

David's eyebrows furrowed.

"You're after us?"

The Eraser, to their surprise, shook his head. He pointed at them both again and then directed his motioning straight up. He repeated this and then added in a couple flaps of his own wings as if to help in the charades act.

"You want to come fly with us?"

A light flashed in the wolf-bird-man's expression as he nodded vigorously.

"Why?"

"And why can't you talk?" Connie asked, determined to get answers too.

This required more thought as he planned out which motions would bring his thoughts across. He settled for holding his wounded shoulder and twisting slightly so that they could see it better.

"Because you're hurt?"

He nodded once, but he wasn't finished. He pulled at his ears and pointed to his sharp teeth then returned his non-injured hand to the wound.

"Erasers hurt you?"

He nodded with zeal. Bingo.

"So you're running away from Project Freelancer too?"

More nodding.

"Is that why you helped me get away last time? You were helping me? And that was you that I almost crashed into while I was flying. You were trying to follow us."

David could see the relief in the Eraser's face as he was able to get his requests across. Then David looked to his partner.

She was less tense. She was still cautious, but her sixth sense must not have been telling her that danger was coming. The way he understood her was that she was a pessimistic dreamer. She had a weakness for the underdogs and had a strong sense of justice. She returned his look with a slight glimmer of hope.

This Eraser could be a valuable ally. Not only that, but he could be just what they needed to get the authorities involved. Frankly, if they presented him to some government as he was that screwed up, they wouldn't be able to ignore the case. And not to mention he could camouflage in with other Erasers if anything came up. This was not an opportunity to pass up. They would just watch him to make sure it wasn't a trap.

* * *

"Wyoming –the Equality State. Charming." Carolina read the sign with as much enthusiasm as if she were listing the ingredients of an oatmeal box.

"Come on, Carolina!" York pointed to the sign animatedly. "I think it's just what we're looking for. We want a fresh start where we aren't tortured or treated like lab rats. That sounds like freedom and equality to me, right?"

"Are we really going to find this guy here? Can he really guarantee our safety?" North asked.

"Probably not. This is just our best move." York shrugged.

North didn't look so assured, but refused to leave his sister's side.

"So how do you know where he is?"

"I don't. I was just told that when I got to Wyoming, he would find me."

"That's so assuring."

"Just trust me, Carolina. If Wyoming's here, he'll find us."

They heard a branch snap, and Erasers started to jump out of hiding and circle them.

"Well, now would be the perfect time for him to show up. We're surrounded." South said bitterly, as she instinctively went back-to-back with her brother and took a fighting stance.

Carolina was regretting having offered to let North and South come with them now. How could they know how to defend themselves? But she was proven wrong.

The twins were pulling off the most complex tandem fighting she'd ever seen. They anticipated each other's moves like it was pre-meditated. They depended on the other to read them and keep their back defended while the other watched them. Carolina wished she could have just watched, but when an Eraser's clawed hand made a swipe a little too close for comfort, she flung herself back into the game.

However, it was still incredibly frustrating for her. She normally only fought until she had an opening for escape. Now, she had three others to look out for, and one of them was being stubborn about his fictitious savior he was waiting for. There was no way she could convince him to leave. She focused her anger and displeasure on the Erasers attacking her –slamming one upside the head here and kicking another down there.

Although she wouldn't admit it, the advantage of being in a group was becoming painfully obvious. There was no way she could take all these guys by herself. She found herself being thankful, although she would still prefer to be in the air where no one could attack her at all.

Still, more Erasers came. These ones had tasing rods now. This put a renewed vigor in the winged teens' spirits, fresh of adrenaline and fear.

York was having a harder time with his blind eye. Carolina tried to cover for him as best she could. Still, despite their efforts, South was still caught with a taser rod into her side. She gritted her teeth as she collapsed into spasms, but didn't cry out.

"No!" North yelled as he tried to fight his way over to defend her, but he couldn't. Without his fighting partner, it was like he was fighting with an arm tied behind his back now. He was too slow and had a whole side unguarded.

He kicked and eventually got a perimeter around South cleared, when something overtook him. He, wiping the blood from the gash on his forehead, glared determined at the on-coming Erasers. It was like everything became slow motion as he pulled back his fist and smashed it into the ground around him.

A large, purple shield materialized around him and his sister. Hexagonal patterns lined the outside as the dome protected them.

The Erasers stopped fighting as they took several steps back in fear, their triangular ears pressed against their heads. They hadn't seen anything like this before. They were afraid to touch it.

However, the shield didn't last very long as North ran out of energy and collapsed inside it, the shield fading with his consciousness.

In the moment of confusion, a pick-up truck burst through the bushes out of nowhere. The silver truck, muddied up from frequent off-roading, barreled into the Erasers, rocking violently as the wolves were steamrolled over. Scattering the ones in its immediate path, the truck threw itself into reverse for another go, taking care to avoid the winged teens. The truck circled round and round until the Erasers fled or the ones that did stay weren't standing anymore.

When the truck was satisfied, it stopped next to the bird kids who looked up at it with bewilderment and wonder. The tinted window finally rolled down to reveal a tan woman with ebony hair tied up in a low ponytail and dark aviators looking them over with an amused expression.

"Welcome to Wyoming, ya freaks. Get in."

She tapped her steering wheel like she was getting impatient. Still, York had to ask.

"Are you the-"

"No, but I'm gonna bring you to him. Come on. I don't have all day."

Carolina was more than suspicious. After all, it was clear she didn't have wings. She wasn't one of them. She could, however, be an Eraser. She was pretty, although not as pretty as a normal Eraser. However, considering the deteriorating state of her flock and the chances of the Erasers getting up, she decided to risk it. After all, Erasers weren't exactly known for taking out their own. They were too stupid to be competitive with each other. They were made that way on purpose.

They helped now-conscious North and limping South, and they all, somehow, managed to climb in the cab of the vehicle. As they pulled away, the woman elbowed York out of the way so she could pull the radio receiver off and talk into it.

"Wyoming, this is 479er. Inbound with four fledglings that flew the coop. Over."

There was a hiss of static then a heavily accented voice replied to her.

"Roger that, 47. Good show, love. I will be sure to make room in the nest. Over." Was that a British accent?

"Ran into the big bad wolves when I found them. A few of the birds lost feathers. Over."

Carolina rolled her eyes. Yeah, they were being _so clever_ with their use of code words. It was like they were in the presence of 007 himself. She groaned.

"The Vet will be expecting them. Arrive safely, poppet. Wyoming, out."

"10-4 Wyoming. 479er out."

She put the receiver back and gave Carolina a look. She continued driving on the road she pulled on to, finally not off-roading. There was awkward silence but York was there as always to break it.

"So you have cool code names. What's your real name?"

"Sorry, kid. Can't tell you that."

_Or she'll have to kill us? I guess she does think she's a girl James Bond._ Carolina thought.

York screwed up his eyebrows.  
"So you'd rather us call you by a number than your name? Are you sure? I almost feel like I'm back at the lab if I do that." His good eye was creased with painful memories.

"Well, sorry you feel that way. My name is my business."

She flipped on her turn signal then turned the wheel right. They were back on a dirt path that led them to a warehouse-looking building with several smaller buildings surrounding it. She eased the truck into the garage, flipped it in park, and ripped out the key.

"Everybody out and follow me."

Carolina didn't have to argue. She didn't think she could stand being in that claustrophobic car for thirty more seconds more before she would have exploded. However, she was hesitant in entering the buildings.

Buildings meant _ceilings_. Ceilings meant no air-escape. No air-escape meant possible death.

York seemed to sense this as he walked up along side her and brushed her with his wing. It was surprisingly comforting, but she didn't return his signature smile. They followed 479er to a smaller, off-shoot building of the huge warehouse.

She walked up to the door, knocked twice, and waited.

"Who's there?" There was that British accent again.

"479er. And if you start with your knock-knock jokes, I'mma come in there and kick you in the face."

"…479er who?"

"Reggie! I swear!"

The door sounded like it was being unlocked, then swung open to reveal a living room with a TV, couches, various beanbag chairs, and a full kitchen. York about fell over.

Holding the door open was brunette man with a very large mustache. He looked to the bird-kids then sighed.

"She never lets me have fun," he whined, the TV blaring some sort of Monty Python in the background.

479er groaned then shoved past him, leading the others like a mother duck.

"Find Flowers. He'll answer your stupid knock-knock jokes," she growled as she flopped down on a couch, her hand automatically falling on the remote to change the channel.

"Of course I will, Reggie! I've always felt that your affection for comedy and jesting creates a warm and welcoming environment any day!"

They looked to see a man with long, 60's-style hair and a Hawaiian shirt walking toward them, carrying with him a first-aid kit.

"Ah, good old Butch Flowers. He will tend to your injuries."

"Thank you." Flowers started helping North and South to the back where the light was greater.

Carolina didn't know if she should tell them or not that York had healing powers, but she thought it would be rude to refuse his offer. That and York looked pretty beat up himself. He didn't need to go wasting all that energy healing everyone right now.

"I am Reginald, also known as Wyoming. I am master of this grand estate. Please! Make yourselves at home."

York headed toward the kitchen and opened the fridge. He held up a whole pan of mashed potatoes like it was the Holy Grail and gave Carolina an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Carolina bit her lip in cautious thought, as she narrowed her eyes and drug them over to Reginald.

"So. What drove you into doing this…charity work, Reginald?" she asked suspiciously.

"The kindness of my heart, love. And because I can sympathize with your sufferings."

He turned to she could see the white/grey wings that leapt off his back. Carolina was taken aback. She looked to see that even Flowers had royal blue wings too.

"What about Numbers Girl? What's her story?" She crossed her arms.

"I can hear you! And the name's _479er_. It's not that hard, chica." 479er didn't even look up from her channel surfing as she replied.

"She's the one that works on the outside. After all, she's 100% human. It would be a danger to our cover if Flowers or I were out there. We'd be discovered."

After he noticed Carolina's look he took her aside, out of ear-shot, and added, "It's just strategy, love. There's nothing sinister about her."

"I-I'm not prejudiced against humans. I just…"

Reginald smiled knowingly and twirled his mustache.

"You _are_, and it's understandable. After all, the only humans you've ever had contact with are the ones that tortured you. But, you can trust her."

The teal-winged teen lowered her glare to the floor.

"Can I ask you for your name, dearie?"

"…Carolina," she said, gritting her teeth at the irony that the stupid name York gave her was the one she was using with everyone now. "And the twins are, well, we call them North and South Dakota. North and South for short. I don't know their real names, actually. And the other boy is New York or just York."

"Why do you call each other state names?"

"Long story."

"Fair enough." Reginald chuckled. "I can see that you are the one in charge here. I want to congratulate you on making it here. It must have been a trying journey."

"You could say that. So now what?"

"Now," he leaned against the wall. "You relax. Flowers, 479er, and I will teach you how to live in the outside world like humans. Then you can choose to leave or stay here and help out. But first," he looked over into the kitchen with caution. "We need to do something about that boy's mashed potato obsession."

* * *

**So I hope that you guys figured out that the winged Eraser is Maine. I didn't know if it was too obvious or not, but I hoped that by making him mute it would give it away. We'll get back to Wash, CT, and Maine in a couple chapters. We're going to stick with Carolina and her bunch for now. **

**So I'm excited that I got 479er in there. I love her character and wish that she was a bigger part of the series. There will be more of her in the next chapter.  
I also hoped I got Florida's personality right. I know he didn't have much spotlight, but he'll be in there more.  
It's no secret I love writing for Wyoming. I'll work him in more too.  
Sorry that this is very Carolina-heavy. It's going to be that way for another chapter too, but it's much of Carolina bonding with a certain other character. It's character development time!**

**Overall, I hope that people liked this. I know it's not my most popular story or my best. After all, it is posted in the cross-overs section so I knew off the bat that it wouldn't be as popular. It motivates me to write when I have two fics going at the same time. However, I don't want to update two that are in the same fandom. It just keeps me balanced that way. So, whether it's liked or not, I'm still going to write it until I lose the drive or finish it. **

**Review if you so desire.  
Looking forward to it. **


	7. Burnt Potatoes

**Here's the next chapter. This one is still quite Carolina-centric, but it will switch soon. This is just more character development for her. Have fun!**

**I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to RoosterTeeth.  
I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.**

* * *

York did, indeed, make himself at home. Recalling world-knowledge he gained during one of his many times he had escaped from the lab, he managed to cook up just about everything in the fridge that could be cooked. He drug Carolina over and explained to her what everything did –what a refrigerator was, what a microwave did, and what all the various types of foods were. He insisted she try everything.

When North and South returned from Flowers's medical treatments, they feasted. Although, York did somehow burn the mashed potatoes.

"I'm not even sure how that's physically possible," North gasped as he held the emptied fire-extinguisher.

Aside from the fact it now smelt like burned things in the compound, the food was delicious. Carolina followed York's advice and did take bites of practically all the food before her. She was overwhelmed by all the new tastes and had trouble getting used to many. The only other frame of reference she had was the paste they gave her at the lab and food they stole from the house when they first escaped that truck.

"Carolina! Try some of this! It's basically noodles with melted cheese on it. You'll love it!"

"There's mac 'n' cheese here? Give me that!" South practically jumped over the table and stole the whole bowl.

"Sis, you have to share. Carolina's probably never had macaroni 'n' cheese before."

"Too bad. So sad. This is mine!"

North sighed at this twin as she succeeded in coating her face with yellow cheese sauce.

"It's alright. You still have to try some guacamole! It looks kinda gross, but I like it. You put it on sandwiches and stuff."

Carolina spooned some into her mouth but immediately spit it out, grasping desperately for her glass of water.

"What? It couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"My mouth is on _fire_!" she squeaked in between breaths, her eyes watering.

Her glass empty, she reached and grabbed York's glass of milk too and downed that.

"Better now?" York watched with morbid fascination.

"Y-yeah." She coughed a few times. "Wow. I am _not _eating that again."

"Um, York," Wyoming began, "I think you gave her some of the wasabi instead of guacamole, chap."

"What?"

York dipped his finger in the bowl of green and tasted it, quickly spitting it out.

"Yup. That's wasabi. Sorry, Lina. My bad."

The table erupted into laughs as the dinner continued. Along the way, Carolina found didn't like seafood (or wasabi) and that cranberries were her absolute favorite. For the first time since Carolina and York escaped that truck, they were full. They were full, healthy, and (supposedly) safe.

"So, Carolyn. You ready to do this?" 479er smirked, getting up from the table.

"It's _Carolina_, and I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's time for your make-over. If you want to blend into society, you have to not look like you've lived out in the wilderness like a wild child for your whole life."

Carolina gritted her teeth.

"I've lived in a _lab _for my whole life! I've been tortured and-"

479er put her hand out. "Spare me the sob story. Don't think I've never heard it before."

The teal-winged girl's eyes blazed. York gulped as she stood up and got right in her face.

"Listen here, you little-"

"Okay. How's about this? I'll listen to you while you let me do the make-over. After you shower, of course."

There was no fear in her eyes.

Carolina balled her fists and analyzed which side of her face should she reconstruct for her. But York stopped her.

"Carolina?"

She whipped around, seething.

"Just do as she says. They're tying to help us. Please?"

She snorted as she left for the bathroom and slammed on the shower.

* * *

Honestly, she had been dying for a shower. She loved the way the dirt and grime melted off of her. It was hard to wash her back with her wings in the way, but she loved the feeling of being clean. Even when she was in the lab, she would get showers every once in a while. Usually before she was presented before potential donors to Project Freelancer's "research". They handed her a simple bar of soap and left her to her own devices, but, during those moments, she would just close her eyes and let the warm water roll.

Finished, she stepped out of the shower, drying herself off with the towel. She paused for a moment as she observed the scar on her leg from the wound that the Eraser gave her -the one that York healed. It looked like it was fading already. That boy was good.

Done with that, she tried to find her clothes. They were gone.

"Where are my clothes?!"

"They should be in there," a voice called back. Probably 479er.

Carolina looked around.

"Well, they aren't!"

"I just put them in there. They should be on the floor next to the sink."

Carolina looked over to see a pile of clothes there, but they weren't hers. Not that she was particularly fond of her ripped and ragged clothing.

She picked up the shirt from the pile like it was a snake going to bite her and looked it over. It was a white top. Sleeveless. But it had two strings which, after much thought, she concluded must tie around her neck. Carolina grimaced. She didn't even look at the other clothing items next to it.

"You want me to wear _this_?!" she shrieked.

479er called back, "Yes!"

"Well, I'm not going to!"

"Why not?!"

"It's not _practical_! I just want my regular, normal _shirt_!"

479er kicked the door open even though it wasn't locked. Carolina jumped to pull her towel up higher as the intruder stomped in and snatched the shirt from her hands.

"It has no back and ties on your neck so that it won't get in the way of your wings. The boots here are made of waterproofed leather and Erasers can't just tear right through it like cloth. The boots go up to your knees so you won't lose your shoes in combat. The pants were chosen so that you can have as much mobility as possible, so you can kick and run without restrictions. Now, what about _that_ was _impractical_?!"

Carolina was stunned. 479er calmed down and walked out of the room much more subtly than she walked in.

"Just put it on. We've still got more to do."

* * *

After she put on the clothes (each fit perfectly on her), she found 479er sitting in a back room. Carolina knocked and looked at her with apologetic eyes.

"You ready for hair?" 479er said full of sarcasm. She didn't acknowledge Carolina's mood change.

She nodded.

"Alright! Come over here! Step into 479er's Bird Kid Salon!"

Carolina sat on the chair that she was directed toward and 479er pulled out a mirror for her to look into. Scissors, combs, and hair doo-dads at the ready, she began.

She started by simply combing her hair that, as it became apparent, was going to take a while. Many times she was forced to snip out some of the rats and tangles she just couldn't get through with the brush. Carolina gritted her teeth as her scalp was tugged and yanked, but remained silent. 479er was merciless, but she eventually got the red hair to be knot-free.

"Okay. This is where you have some say. How would you like me to cut your hair?"

Carolina stared in the mirror. She hadn't known that her hair was that red or that smooth. It was, as narcissistic as it was, beautiful if she said so herself.

"Um, I like it this length." She couldn't help stroking her own hair and weaving her fingers through it in total disbelief.

"No problem. I'll just make everything even then. Do you want any layers? Or –well, you can't do layers with long hair that well. Um, how about bangs? I can see you with a fringe."

"Um, sure?"

"Don't worry. Even if I screw this up, your red hair will be knocking them boys dead."

They both chuckled but for different reasons. 479er chuckled because she thought she was making Carolina uncomfortable. Carolina chuckled because there was no way any man would ever want to settle down with a winged freak like her. She could just imagine the first date. 'Hello. Tell me something about yourself.' 'Well, I'm allergic to peanuts, and I was tortured in a lab for most of my life. Don't be surprised if the kids have wings.' Yeah. It would be absolutely hilarious.

After a few snippets here and clips there, Carolina's hair was done. She looked in the mirror with awe.

"Thank you for doing all of this for me."

She got up to leave, but 479er slammed her back down.

"Oh, we're not done yet."

"Wha-"

That's when 479er pulled out the makeup.

"Is that really necessary?"

"Think of it like camouflage paint. It helps you blend in to your surroundings. Your surroundings just happen to be other teenaged girls. Now hold still."

It was like being painted. It was certainly a strange sensation. 479er made sure she was teaching her as she was doing her makeup. Giving pointers and explaining what each tool, powder, and color did.

Carolina wasn't sure if she liked it. Her eyes looked hollow with all the eye shadow, and there was no way she was letting her put on any of that frilly blush.

479er looked at Carolina's frustrated expression reflected in the mirror and had a slight tinge of pity for her. Carolina hadn't flipped out yet and was really trying hard to cooperate.

"Okay. I'll take some of the eye shadow off and we don't have to do mascara. Although, with the color of your eyes, red hair, and pale skin, any sort of color on you is going to look extreme. That's just the card you were dealt, hon. Suck it up."

Just like when she was dueling with Carolina's hair, 479er was rough with makeup too. If Carolina moved even an inch, she was scolded.

"There. You happy, princess?"

Carolina, finally given the okay, opened her eyes. It wasn't too bad. Much better than the raccoon eyes of before.

"It takes some getting use to. Soon enough you'll have your own style down. It will feel like second nature to you. Just like learning to fly. Or, well, I assume."

479er trailed off as if it led to a sad memory.

"Why _are_ _you _here, 9er?"

She squinted at the nickname but didn't complain.

"Nice try, kid. Now go show off to those boys how pretty I made ya." She smirked.

Carolina rolled her eyes and walked into the hall.

* * *

She found that everyone else was sitting in a circle and preening the person in front of them's wings.

"Come to join the preening party, Caroli-" York started, but, when he actually looked up to see her, he froze.

She. Was. _Beautiful_.

York looked down again and his face turned red. He hadn't meant to stare, but, frankly, he'd never seen a more pretty person in all his life. She literally looked like an angel.

"Yeah. I need to tag someone out so that 479er can do their makeover."

"I'll go. She_ obviously_ has the makeup out already."

Carolina wasn't sure if that was supposed to be an insult to her or just South dreading wearing makeup herself. She chose to let that one slide.

Sitting down in South's spot in the circle, she picked up preening Flowers' wings while North preened hers.

Preening Flowers' wings was easy. The dirt and debris stood out against his dark blue feathers. Not to mention that he must not go outside much. His wings probably didn't even need work. Still, it was regular maintenance like this that kept the wings in good condition.

She removed all the broken contour feathers and plucked the dirty down feathers. She smoothed out the remaining with her fingers and spread out the oil as evenly as she could. Oil was what made the wings waterproof. It also gunked up the feathers if it wasn't cleaned out.

When South returned, Carolina's hands were good and sticky with oil. South's hair was much shorter and layered and her bangs hung over her right eye. Her hair ended up being a strikingly pale blonde when it was completely clean. She wore a shirt that was in a similar style as Carolina's but hers didn't tie on the neck and simply hugged her middle really tight. Her boots were taller than even Carolina's but she wore shorts with them instead of long pants. And, for the record, she was wearing much more makeup than Carolina.

"You look nice, sis." North offered, but she snorted.

"I guess. Move over and finish my wings, will ya."

She plopped down in front of her brother and behind Carolina. South slowly started to preen Carolina's feathers, but Carolina could tell she wasn't being very thorough.

"Well, that means I'm next then."

Everyone's wings were good and preened by the time York came back.

He was wearing cargo shorts paired with a Green Lantern belt and combat boots with a regular T-shirt that just had slits cut in the back for his wings. Except, the wing holes were rimmed with extra stitching so the fabric wouldn't tear and prevent the hole from getting bigger. His hair was a lighter brown than his wings, it turned out. It was much shorter and the front of his bangs was angled slightly up with gel. He looked good.

_Although, really, York could look good even if he was wearing a paper bag. _

Carolina stopped. Did she really just think that? She shook her head to clear the thought out.

North, like the gentleman he was, finished his sister's wings before he took his turn in 479er's make-over session. He emerged with similar cargo pants and a Hawkeye belt. His shirt also had the holes in the back like there was a whole stockpile of shirts just like it somewhere. His hair was also short, but it was flat –the curls having no length to really spring.

"Aren't they awesome? I'm the best, aren't I?" 479er said as she crashed on the couch next to Reginald, falling against him dramatically.

"Yes, dearie. You certainly are the best." There was no sarcasm even though he wore a smile under his monstrous mustache.

She shoved him away jokingly and sat up to watch whatever mindless sitcom happened to be on the TV.

"Are you going to tell us how you became such a beautician?" York asked, mischievously.

"Well, it's my superpower. Bestowed upon me by the universe."

"I think I could coat a cake with all that sarcasm." York smiled.

"You'd probably burn it though." North said, softly, but everyone heard it anyway.

"Hey! Not cool, man!" York put his hands on his hips in mock offense. "So would Reggie happen to know any of her secrets?"

Reginald laughed and 479er slammed his head with a pillow.

"No. I'm afraid not. She's just as much a secret to me as to everyone else."

It was hard to tell if he was lying or not.

"Alright! It's getting too late for this. Girls can stay in my room. Boys can stay in Reggie's room or you can crash on the couches. Your choice."

"Couch!" North and York called at the same time. Eyeing the other like a western showdown, they launched toward the living room. Considering there were two couches, it didn't really need to be a contest, but it was guy logic that it had to be.

With the boys content on their separate couches, the girls followed 479er to her room at the back of the compound. She had her own bed, a futon, a hammock, and an assortment of beanbags. Carolina wondered why at first but remembered that they probably weren't the first runaways to come through here. It would make sense for them to have several sleeping places.

479er claimed her own bed while South took the futon and Carolina took the hammock.

As things started to quiet down, the girls heard 479er ask in the darkness, "Isn't this the point in the sleepover where we talk about boys?"

She eyed Carolina in particular. The way York looked at her after she was done getting made over must not have been missed by her.

Carolina knew where this was going and immediately blurted the first thing that came into her head in a desperate attempt to divert the subject for her, "Are you dating Reginald?"

She stiffened physically in the bed. Carolina could see her with her genetically improved night vision.

"No. We never have and never will."

"Why not? You seem to get along fine." It wasn't that she shipped them or anything. It was just something that would make sense in her mind.

479er sighed and beat her pillow a couple times to fluff it up.

"I think he's hiding something from me. I don't know what it is."

"What do you mean by that? What could he possibly have to hide?"

"Something dark." 479er closed her eyes. "What am I saying? I'm acting like this is a conspiracy or something. Never mind. Just never mind. Go to sleep. And, if either of you snore, I'm smothering you. Just an FYI. Okay? Okay. Good night."

Carolina was still thinking about what she said about Reginald. What if he _was_ hiding something dark? What could it be? Just when she was beginning to feel safe here, she had to bring this upon herself.

Carolina just shook her head. She knew better than to think she had found a safe haven. As long as there was Project Freelancer, she would never be safe anywhere. They would look for her until the day she died. She had to get her head out of this fantasy and back into reality. She still had a trip to Canada to plan. The longer she stayed, the harder it was going to get to say goodbye to everyone. It was already hard now.

She closed her eyes and cautiously welcomed sleep. It was the first time she had slept somewhere other than a floor, be that the dirt floor of the earth, the concrete floor of the lab, or the metal floor of a moving truck.

It wasn't as hard to fall asleep even though there was no one on watch. It was very strange. Maybe because she was sure that with all the people in the compound they would be able to take on anyone who came in, and someone would wake up if someone broke in. Carolina had spotted the security system on the door too. She was exhausted and bruised and full. Wrapping her wings closer to herself, she tried to stop thinking, but that didn't happen. Her thoughts continued rapid fire until they became a white noise to which she finally fell asleep. Finally.

* * *

**Yay! So in the series, 479er and Carolina's relationship is very interesting. In season 10, there's the scene where Carolina tells everyone to get in 479er's pelican, but 479er stops her so she can talk to Delta and Carolina doesn't object. Basically 479er is the only person she willingly takes orders from. She really respects her. And then, in season 9 and 10, they have lots of funny, back-and-forth dialogue. Carolina talking with 479er is about as casual of a conversation as she ever has. Basically, it's my headcanon that 479er and Carolina are really good friends. However, because of their personalities, I picture them as not getting along right off the bat. This is what I was trying to show alot with this chapter. This is Carolina getting her very first friend that, also, happens to be a human. She's finally learning to trust.**

**I also tried to hint at some Yorkalina here too. I'm terrible at writing romance so the romance might still be a little delayed until I can come up with something good.**

**Speaking of romance, does anyone approve or disapprove of the hinted Wyoming/479er? I've never, ever thought of this ship before, but, in this fic, it just might work. So, if you guys are cool with it, I'm gonna go with an eventual pairing of those two. If you object, then that's fine. I can keep it friendship. I just have a really good scene (in my head) for them. Anyway, just a possible heads-up.**

**On a lighter note, in my other RvB fic, I have North as the cook. It's sort of a headcanon of mine that North would be a good cook. However, in this one, I'm doing a take on that York is a really bad cook. It just seemed something that would be really funny to throw in there. Just kicks and giggles and all that jazz. **

**I'm starting my internship soon so, I know that this might be a little personal, but if you could pray for me in that regard, it would be very much appreciated. **

**Thank you for reading this! I really hope that you're enjoying it so far.**

**Review if you so desire.  
Looking froward to it. **


	8. Premonitions and Collision

So this one was a little longer coming. I apologize, but it will probably be like that for a while. I just started my internship so I'm working my first full-time job. I'm pretty burnt out after working for eight hours so cut me a little slack if my updates are a little later. I still plan on continuing my stories, don't get me wrong. I just might take a little longer.

Thank you FearIsButFearItself for faving and commenting. I appreciate your words greatly.  
Also, thank you to the guest for wishing me luck. That really means a lot to me. And, also, thank you for making my decision on the pairing easy.

-Let it be known that there will be eventual 479er/Wyoming. Just like all my other stories, it won't be anything heavy. Just light, cute romance.

I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to Rooster Teeth.  
I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.

* * *

"Okay. We need food. Now. …And I'm pretty sure the big guy agrees."

Connie rolled her eyes as she tried to ignore David's nagging like she had for the past few hours.

"David, just because the Eraser can't complain doesn't mean you have to do it for him."

"Well, it's true. He's hungry too. Right?"

David looked to the winged Eraser, but the bigger creature just put his hands up in surrender. He wasn't about to pick sides in this.

David sighed. "Come on, Connie. You can't say that you aren't starving too. I was just wondering if you had a plan."

"No, but my foresight is predicting that food will fall from the sky at any moment now."

"Ha ha. She's always been the glass-is-half-empty type of person."

Connie gritted her teeth. That was the other most annoying thing David had started doing recently. He would talk to the Eraser about her like she wasn't standing _right there with him_.

She marched on, every once in a while feeling with her foresight. Perhaps food would fall from the sky? Either that or something more practical would show up on her radar.

They trudged on. Why weren't they flying? Apparently, the Eraser couldn't fly for very long given his awkward wolf-human-bird combo. It was a miracle he could fly at all. After all, he looked absolutely anti-aerodynamic. Not to mention that he was in what seemed like a permanent half-transformed Eraser look.

Normal Erasers looked like really attractive humans one second and then they transformed all werewolf-like into really big wolves that walked on two legs instead of four.

This Eraser seemed to be frozen in a mid-transformation. He had claws on the ends of his hands, lengthened canine teeth, a bushy tail, furry arms, and ears that stuck out the top of his head. This, coupled with the wings on his back, made him look like an absolute freak show. Not in a million years would she have thought this train wreck could fly at all, but they'd seen it happen. Still, for the sake of having a bodyguard, they kept on the ground. It had also eased Connie's nerves that, if they were betrayed by him, they could easily ditch him in the air.

He did have some distinctly human features. He had bright blue eyes and poster-child ginger hair. Honestly, despite his seven-foot-tall height and shoulder bulk, she would have guessed he was actually really young. But Connie couldn't exactly find any sympathy for him. She'd been tortured and experimented on just like him. He wasn't worth any more pity than she was.

"What should we call you? We can't just keep calling you "Eraser." What's your name?"

Great. Now he was naming it.

The Eraser shrugged.

"Does that mean you don't have a name? Or do you just not care what we call you?"

Again, he shrugged.

"You're not making this easy, you know. I named the birds outside the window of my cell once. I named them all "Fluffy" -every single one of them."

The Eraser gave him a look.

"I was really little, okay? But, I'm still no better at naming things. So you should think twice before you ask me to give you a nickname."

"You had a window?"

Connie's volume was deceiving for how much emotion was contained within it. David, with his strong ears, heard it though. It was the sound of her heart breaking into green shards of jealousy.

"Yeah. It wasn't a fantastic view or anything." He wished he could just suck the words back into his lungs, but he couldn't. He quickly tried to write it off as not a big deal. "It actually-"

"What I would have given for a window in my cell."

David looked at her with concerned eyes as she avoided his gaze. He closed his mouth and zipped it shut. He knew he owed her his silence at the moment.

The odd trio continued until Connie tensed up. She began to walk faster, and David knew better than to fall behind. He urged the winged Eraser with him as they traveled behind the now briskly running girl.

"Connie, what is it?"

David searched the skies, keeping on high alert for the growl of an Eraser or the buzz of a chopper.

"Something _good_!" She ran forward into one direction then stopped sharply to head another way. "Something good is nearby! I have to find it!"

Her chest was heaving, but she was smiling. David smiled with her. The last time she had a good premonition was the day they escaped from the lab.

They continued following her sporadic dodging and jumping as she narrowed in on the good thing.

That's when they spotted it. It was a metal compound. Several tin buildings that were well hidden behind evergreen trees glinted their metal siding at them through the tiny spots the branches allowed, being at just the right angle with the sun.

"That's it! Something good is there!"

It was strange to see her so excited about something. David always knew she was a passionate person, but he never really thought of her as an exclamation point person. He liked this side to her -the glass-is-half-full side.

The three took off, not caring at all that the branches of the trees slapped them around like abusive broom heads. They stopped in front of one of the buildings which had a metal door, but that didn't deter them.

The Eraser made a noise that sounded something between a growl and a whine as Connie and David kicked at the door with huge, echoing thuds.

"Come on, man! Stop worrying. This is something good! We're not gonna get caught if she felt something good is going to happen! Now help us break down this door."

Still, the Eraser remained unconvinced as he kept turning around, paranoid and ears flat. When he finally got tired of it, he pushed the two bird kids aside and, with one mighty punch, sent the door falling inwards.

Inside the building, they turned on a light to find what looked like a doomsday bunker full of canned and dried food. Cue the "Hallelujah" chorus.

"Oh. My. Gosh! Connie, you're amazing! Hooray for bird freak powers!"

David's wings fluttered a little in his excitement. Soon they would be feasting! Caught up in the moment, he gave Connie a hug, but quickly broke it when he saw the look on her face.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"I was wrong." She said in a ghostly whisper, distant like she was possessed. "I'm always wrong."

David's face paled as his eyes widened.

"Move!" he shouted to the Eraser, pulling on Connie's arm to try to move her quickly, but she didn't budge.

"It's too late."

No sooner had she said that then David was knocked on the head and sent crashing into a shelf.

The commotion seemed to have snapped Connie out of her shock and defeatism. She might have known in her gut that this was already going to be a defeat for them, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

Reeling on the nearest opponent, she drove a sidekick into the gut of a strangely mustached man who, even stranger, had wings like her. In fact, all except one of the seven opponents had wings. Still, she did not let this dissuade her. She had her mind on her survival and her survival on her mind, nothing else.

David swung blind punches as he staggered to his feet, his head still reeling from the hit. The two purple-winged kids who looked strikingly related, immediately teamed-up on him. He couldn't land a hit, but he could block decently.

The Eraser stood his ground easily against the blue-winged guy and the girl without wings. He didn't make many aggressive moves but simply worked his way forward like a steamroller, trying to get to either Connie or David to assist them.

The mustached man was joined by two others, the teal-winged girl and the brown-winged boy with a scar, and Connie started to feel the heat. She didn't have enough time to move to trigger her ability so she was left with toppling over items on the shelves to block their advances and to buy herself time. Still, the teal-winged girl, in an impossible flurry of kicks, sent her flying into the back wall, no wings needed.

Soon she felt David being flung into the shelf next to her and cause an avalanche of dried milk containers to baptize them in white powder. The Eraser retreated back with them and stood in front of the two protectively. He growled, still unable to reach a high volume with the strange noise, but it was still menacing enough with his teeth bared and claws extended.

Still the other seven opponents walked toward them slowly, cornering them and waiting for them to make a move. They were out numbered, even if they counted the Eraser as two people because of his strength.

"Get out of here!" David whispered to Connie.

She saw he was looking at the light bulb dangling on a chord of wire above them. She nodded in understanding.

David put his hand on the Eraser's shoulder as he slowly staggered to his feet.

"Do you remember what I did to those Erasers when we first saw you?"

The Eraser ever so slightly nodded his head, confirming her understood what David was meaning through his whispers.

"Now!"

Connie bolted forward, straight at the girl with the teal wings. Not bothering to hide a smirk, she used her slight teleportation powers to leap around her expertly, greatly confusing their foes. She dodged out the door and burst into the air.

"York!" The teal-winged girl shouted, and the brown-winged boy, York, leapt after her with a little hesitation in the shouting girl's direction.

Meanwhile, as Connie got away, the rest converged on David and the Eraser. Taking a deep breath, David leapt into the air, using the Eraser's shoulder as a platform. He jumped up with a final flap of his wings and grabbed the chord with one hand. With the other hand, he shattered the light bulb itself. Glass and electricity shot through his hand and he gritted his teeth, instead focusing on holding on to the chord.

The Eraser became a wall. He swiped at the attackers that came too close and even resorted to snatching down ones that took flight in an attempt at stopping David from whatever he was doing. He took damage, especially when they discovered his shoulder was already wounded, but he, like a huge tree, simply took the blows. He didn't move an inch.

The Eraser licked his bleeding lips as he stood his ground, unsure of how long David needed to "charge." But, that question was answered for him when David plummeted from the ceiling into a crumpled heap on the ground in front of him.

The fight paused as the others didn't know what to think of the boy who apparently just tried to kill himself in front of them.

David stirred and coughed a little, but that was simply to clear his throat enough for him to mutter, "Jump!"

The Eraser was the only one that caught on fast enough to his words to actually do that. He jumped on top of a cardboard box that sort of buckled under his weight but kept him off the metal flooring.

Then David, grunting, slammed his hand on to the floor.

Electricity leapt from his hand in all directions, greedily jumping in sparks along the floor and ripping through the attackers close by. Unlike the forest, the sheet metal was an excellent conductor.

The others' bodies were drawn up violently into ramrod straightness as electricity volted through them. After David had none left and the electricity finally stopped, everyone joined David in a pile of fallen figures on the floor.

That's when the Eraser smelled something burning. He turned behind him and saw that one of the various boxes must have held matches as an emergency supply as they must have combusted when it was electrocuted. It wasn't a second later that the cardboard of other boxes started to rise up in flames, spreading from box to box like a contagion.

The Eraser was the only one unharmed by David's blast so he carefully stepped down from the crushed, cardboard box, relieved when he was not electrocuted by some stray volt or something.

He started with moving the person closest to the flaming boxes. It was the teal-winged girl with the pretty red hair. She was unconscious because of how close she was to David when he electrocuted the floor. He carefully scooped her into his arms bridal style, grimacing at the wounds on her un-shoed feet. In fact, since it was as early in the morning as it was, all of them forgot to put on footgear. He, as gracefully as a mutant wolf/bird/human hybrid could be, stepped over the other writhing forms on the floor.

Finally outside, he sat her down on the ground a safe distance away and went back for the others. Sure, they may have attacked him, but he didn't think they deserved to be burned to death.

That's when the brown-winged boy, York, returned.

"Carolina!" he cried, as he dropped from the sky and landed a high speed kick to the Eraser's face.

The wolf-hybrid grunted as his head was snapped to the side. Blood dripped out his mouth as he blocked another blow meant for his face again. He tried to put his hands up in the universal signal for surrender, but that didn't seem to stop the his fury.

Having enough of this madness, he took York by the collar of his shirt and threw him inside the compound. Thankfully, he didn't land on anyone, but was horror-struck to see the building ablaze. Stepping over the speechless, scarred boy, the Eraser tried to grab another wounded bird kid, this time the boy with purple wings, but he shoved him away demanding that he save his sister first though he himself was in extreme pain. The Eraser didn't have time for this nonsense so he picked the guy up anyway, grunting in his own language that he was going to save everyone, he just couldn't do it all at once.

"No! South!" He squirmed in the Eraser's hold as much as he could without causing further injury to himself.

The bigger creature sat that one down quickly and rushed in to save the kid's sister. This was about the time that Connie showed back up. She wondered why the boy had stopped following her. Now she was helping that same boy lift and move David out of the slowly burning room, he having apparently knocked himself out.

After everyone was out safely, York flung himself into the task of healing everyone with supernatural powers he claimed he had. Connie and the Eraser followed the boy's instructions and brought out some cold water to put on the wounds York couldn't get to yet.

"Who are you?! Why are you here?!" York demanded, his eyes brimming with angry tears as he tended to the teal-winged girl with devotion.

Connie looked down, mulling over her response.

"We were hungry. That's why we broke in." She didn't want to tell him about her powers. She didn't trust them, and she was still doubting if she had powers at all. They were seeing the result of it now.

York swore under his breath.

"And why do you have an _Eraser_ with you? What's with him?"

Connie stuttered and she timidly looked at the Eraser.

"We…found him. He won't hurt us. I think." She added the last bit softly. "He can't talk."

"I see," he said, as he painfully moved on to the next patient.

There was more awkward silence as Connie and the Eraser didn't know what else to do.

"I'm New York. This compound belongs to Wyoming, the guy with the 'stache. Flowers and 479er work for him here. Flowers is the guy with the blue wings and 479er is the human. They let us come live here. 'Us' being everyone else. I ran into Carolina when Project Freelancer tried to take us back to the lab on a truck."

It wasn't a question of who he was talking about when he was referring to Carolina. The amount of emotion in his face and the look he gave said it all.

"We met the twins, North and South Dakota, later on, and they left the circus to come with us. Then we found Wyoming, and he took us in."

Connie watched attentively as she listened to him, essentially, reminisce.

"Why do most of you call yourselves states?"

York chuckled a little.

"Well, some of us didn't have names. Some of us wanted to protect our real names. Wyoming is Wyoming because that's the state we're in now. North and South Dakota are twins. Carolina and I were from somewhere in the Carolinas and New York respectively. Flowers and 479er just like using their own codenames they've been using."

Connie stored that information away for later.

"Why are you here?" New York continued.

"I told you."

"No. Why are you in this area?"

"Running from Project Freelancer. Same as you."

New York looked thoughtful.

"Well, until all these guys are rested up, I can't say if you can stay with us or not." It was like he was purposefully leaving out the, "Even though you still helped get everyone out before they burned alive" part.

"Well, we're not leaving until Da-…our _friend_ is back on his feet." Connie quickly tried to cover over her slip up. It wasn't that New York knowing David's real name could somehow bring their ruin, but she didn't trust them yet.

"Don't worry. With me working my magic, he'll be back to 100% in no time!" York shined a 500 kilowatt smile at her.

New York was a strange boy.

"But, I have to ask. Why does he have _cat_ ears?"

Connie couldn't help but let a light smile crease her lips.

"I have no idea."

* * *

Sorry if that seemed a little rushed. I'm not as practiced with action as I need to be. And there are _so many characters!_ And the characters don't know each other yet so that's frustrating from a writing perspective too.  
So our two groups have collided! Yay! I'll try to get passed them introducing each other to each other as fast as possible or as entertainingly as possible. I'll try not to bore you basically.  
I tried to reference RvB season 8(?) where Wash is with the Meta and Doc in the desert and only Wash is able to understand the Meta with how David is able to somehow understand mute Maine even though he doesn't say a word. Heehee.

Writing-wise, I'm finding I'm writing Connie and Carolina similarly as well as York and Wash. I know this so I'm trying to fix it, but I'm trying to make Connie not as the crazy, paranoid one that I've written her as in the past. Still, it's hard to write for a character that is hardly on screen. I'll be able to fix York and Wash's personalities once they are side by side in the story. That will be easier. Still, I'm going to have to decide how Connie and Carolina will act toward each other. It could go several ways.

The next chapter might be a while, might not. I've already started writing the next chapter because I liked a particular scene I thought out, but that scene won't be able to fill up a whole chapter. So the rest of it might take me a while.

Anyway, thank you to all who faved, alerted, and commented. You all get a special place in my heart!  
Looking forward to it!


	9. Aftermath

**So this summer is a great summer for my fanfictions. I've completed one of my Hetalia fanfictions yesterday, and I'm going to be posting more soon. I don't have anything new planned for RvB so this is the RvB representation. I still have a timeline written for this so the updates shouldn't be too long, but I still am working full-time now so there might be a little delay. Please stay with me, okay?**

**FearIsButFearItself -Thank you so much for your review! I hope this chapter is also squeal-worthy. XD**

**I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to Rooster Teeth.**  
**I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson. **

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David's eyes saw only blur when he opened them, but he squeezed them shut again as pain coursed through his nerves.

"Hey! I think he's coming to!"

The voice pounded against his head, but all he could do was turn his head away, flatten his ears, and grimace. His body was sluggish and his mind was pretty much mush. Considering the migraine that swelled in his brain, you could cut the fog he was suffocating under with a knife. He was in pure instinct-mode.

"Hey, cool down, sport. You're still pretty torn up. You're lucky I'm here or else you might be able to use your hand ever again."

Before he could wonder who was talking, pain jolted in his system again as he instinctively pulled back his throbbing hand, raising his grey wing over his shoulder to hide himself under the curtain of feathers.

"Hey! No moving! I'm still working here!"

David couldn't listen (and he, honestly, couldn't hear) as he kept his eyes shut and curled up on his side, cradling his wounded hand. He trembled as trained fear drove him against his brain. His senses would tell them he was in the world, but his memories insisted he had to be back in the lab if he was in pain like this. He was being tortured. They found him again. They were going to hurt him. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Carolina watched the poor boy from where she stood off to the side. He was shaking as tears simply from the pain of the ordeal streaked his sealed eyes. She was watching York work and was also there for security's sake. She wasn't sure what happened, but, from what it sounded like, he may have almost tried to kill himself back there. All she knew was he might not be in a stable mental condition at the moment, especially since he was a lab rat like they were. It could get dangerous.

She knew as well as York did what injured experiments could do when they were scared and hurt. They had been in his position themselves many times. And she knew, just by looking at the kid, that he wasn't like North and South who had lived their lives outside the lab by some freak stroke of luck. He was like her.

"Calm him down, York. We don't need him trying, whatever that was, again."

York's thoughts were stuttered by sleep deprivation as he put his hands up.

"How am I supposed to do _that_?"

Carolina could see the bags under his eyes. She knew all of this healing was taking its toll on him. He was a stubborn one about it, insisting he'd heal everyone before he even caught a wink of shuteye, but she knew he had limits. And he was well within reaching them.

"So is he awake?"

479er, with timing that had no comparison, swaggered in, her hands in her pockets.

"You shouldn't be up and around yet, 9er. You're human. You're more delicate than us."

"And you can tell by my face how much I care, Yorkie."

York cracked a smile, as he ran a trembling hand through his hair. 479er walked with a limp, but none the less walked around the makeshift medical bed to stand next to Carolina and looked down at the boy with her head cocked to the side.

"He looks like a kicked puppy."

Carolina frowned.

"And why aren't you healing him?" she continued, ignoring the redhead.

"Because," Carolina grunted, "he won't calm down enough to let York do it."

"Calm down?"

"He's scared. …He's an experiment like us."

"Oh." 479er said, her tone dipping into serious for a second. But, when the second passed, she crouched beside the table that was actually the dining room table in disguise to where she was eye level with the whimpering boy and cocked a smile.

She slowly reached out a hand and started to scratch behind the grey-winged boy's feline ears.

"What are you doing?" Carolina demanded, as the boy flinched away from the touch, still refusing to open his eyes.

"He's got cat ears, yeah? Don't cat's like to be scratched?"

Before Carolina could protest more, 479er tried again, this time more gently. He flinched again, but, strange enough, began to uncoil from his tense fetal position. As 479er began to become more confident, the boy began to finally relax and even began to lean into her hand when she tried to pull away.

"Are you gonna be a good kitty for them now?" The baby talk she used woke the boy up from whatever delusion he must have been lulled into by the petting.

He opened his eyes into the dark orbs of 479er and jolted back, shocked at the proximity of another person's face to his own and because he was so embarrassed as he just came to the realization of what had been happening the past couple minutes.

York just couldn't take it anymore. He'd been up for way longer than he was capable of so he was already slap-happy. This was just enough to put him over the edge into hysterical laughter. This just made David more confused.

He sat up but cried out as he tried to move his hand. He looked down at it to see the red scarlet reflecting off the shiny glass still serrating it.

"That's what I've been trying to fix, dude! Let me see the hand."

David didn't say anything, but slowly extended his hand toward the boy, taking interest in the fascinating scar over his dead eye.

"I can heal your hand. I have awesome powers kinda like you. Now this will hurt, but hold still."

"Speaking of which," Carolina started, as York began his work again. "What _was_ that you did to us?"

David turned his neck to look at Carolina now.

"Um, I can, ouch!, absorb electricity then shoot it out." He cringed as York pulled yet another piece of shattered light bulb out of his palm.

"Does it hurt you when you do that?"

"Ye- agh! Yes. Very much, ma'am."

Carolina was a little taken aback at the formality, but she found she actually kinda liked it.

"Then why do you do it?"

"To protect my friends." Then David remembered. "Where is she- _they_. Where are they?" He craned his neck to look for them.

"Recovering. They're both exhausted from dragging every one of us from a burning building and into the compound."

"I helped in that too," York added as he ripped a particularly deep piece out.

David bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out, but he slammed his good hand in a fist down on the table just because he needed something to punch in midst the agony.

"So we're all friends now. Is that what we've decided?"

A few more tears streaked his face as he knew no other way to channel the pain.

"That's to be decided later. We're repaying you for saving us first. Then we'll decide how you're going to repay the damage you've done to Wyoming's building."

"Well, with friends like you, who needs enemies?" David said, as he flinched once again.

"All the glass is out finally. Now I can heal your hand."

David's expression was priceless as he watched the cuts on his hands that would have normally needed stitches zip back together until white scar lines were the only evidence of the incredible battlefield it once was.

"Told ya, kid. I'm pretty awesome, but you can just call me York."

David brought his newly repaired hand closer to his face as he opened and closed it several times, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

After watching the kid for a little while, York got up to leave.

"Don't worry. You don't have to thank me or anything. I'm just going to go heal some more people with my miraculous awesome powers."

David snapped out of his revelry and turned to the brown-winged boy.

"Th-thank you! I, I didn't hurt anyone too bad, did I?"

David ducked his head into his collarbone as he looked toward York with pleading eyes.

"Nothing too serious. Almost everyone's feet are fried 'cause that's what part of them was touching the metal floor, but, other than that, just a bruise here and a cut there. A bloody nose is the worst I've seen yet, but I haven't checked out your Eraser friend yet. That's where I'm going now."

When he left, David followed. York led him to where the huge Eraser lay flat on his stomach, snoring on the floor in the middle of the living room. He had a heavy wing wrapped protectively over Connie to which David found he gave a great nod of approval and found he expected. If they were going to be a group, they had to protect each other. The Eraser protecting her was exactly what he should have been doing. No one would dare touch her with Sasquatch hanging around.

York walked over to them, but didn't make a move to disturb him.

"Do _you_ wanna get him up? I kinda don't want to die."

David smiled as he also didn't want to be ripped to shreds either, but had no choice really. He cautiously approached him and poked him on the back.

"Hey. Wake up, man. This guy's here to heal you."

"And by "this guy" he means York." The scarred bird boy added.

"Yeah. Him. I told you I'm bad with names."

The Erasers growled as he moved, retrating his wings and sitting up. He turned and looked York over then pointed her shoulder at him. York got the hint and went to work.

"Your shoulder's been injured for a while. It gonna take longer for me to heal it because your body's already tried to repair itself somewhat. However, I can sense there's some minor infections. I'll see what I can do about those."

The Eraser looked pleased as he felt relief for the first time come to his old wound that had been aggravated and re-aggravated several times. York was surprised how many injuries he found that hadn't even started healing yet. The cuts on his face weren't even scabbing yet. He would have thought that with all his mutations and grafting he would heal amazingly fast. However, the opposite was just as likely to be true. There's only so much you can mess with a person's DNA before the cons start to outweigh the pros. He wondered what side of the line this Eraser thing fell on.

The Eraser was definitely the most injured and took the most energy out of him. He was starting to see stars toward the end and Carolina noticed. She sternly ordered him to go to sleep, and he used the rest of what energy he had left to pull himself up on to the couch. He was snoring before his head even hit the pillow.

Connie was up to her feet, hovering as David's side cautiously.

"So. What are your guys' names?"

They both turned toward 479er who entered the room having cleaned up the room David had been a patient in and turned it back into a dining room.

"This is Connie," David started, but was quickly cut off.

"Connecticut." She crossed her arms confidently. "He's Washington."

David raised an eyebrow before Connie shot him a glare he knew all to well.

"Y-yeah. That's me. …And he's Maine."

479er chuckled. "So I see you're going with the codenames too. Fine. Whatever floats your boat. Just make sure to get your little states in the dining room when dinner's ready, or you won't get any food. They won't wait for you."

With that she carried the supplies to the back, leaving them in the presence of Carolina while York snored on the couch. Maine seemed to perk up at the idea of food being nearby and went to investigate the kitchen. Connie gave David another look and he took the hint, following her outside the building.

"So, Connie-"

"Don't call me "Connie." We don't want them to know our identities. We don't know if we can trust them yet."

"Trust them? They healed us. Why wouldn't we trust them? Do you have a bad feeling about them,_ Connecticut_?"

"No. Not yet. Still, I think it's best we lay low."

"That's gonna be hard to do. I don't think Maine could be subtle about anything."

All David got in response to his attempt at easing the tension was a short, frustrated snort before she headed back.

"Hurry up, Washington. We've got to take advantage of this "hospitality" for as long as it lasts."

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**I know nothing much happened in this chapter, but it was necessary to have the characters meet each other formally and for David and Connie to finally become Wash and CT. **

**The next chapters will probably be less action-y and more bonding-y. The group needs to become friends. And I need to focus on other characters other than Carolina, York, Wash, and CT! So the other Freelancers will be showcased more in the upcoming chapters. Yay for variety! (Finally!)**

**You can take 479er scratching Wash's ears as an implied or not. The official (eventual) pairing will be Wash/CT. It's sort of my unusual headcanon that Wash and 479er would be great friends, and I could certainly see them together. However, I can also see 479er as the I-don't-need-no-man type for sure too. So, take it as you wish. **

**As always, thank you for reviewing and faving! You guys are amazing-ness!**

**Review or fav as you so desire.**  
**Looking forward to it!**


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